


Trust-Exorcise

by mothboys



Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Bisexual!Veronica, F/F, Ghost Heather Chandler, HAROLD THEY'RE LESBIANS, Lesbian!Heather Chandler, Not Canon Compliant, Period-Typical Homophobia, Post-Canon, Rating May Change, Supernatural Elements, ghost au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2020-10-24 18:41:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 37,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20710718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mothboys/pseuds/mothboys
Summary: Veronica Sawyer is off to college - lucky for her the ghost of her ex-best friend Heather Chandler had decided to tag along. Heather wants to move on to the afterlife but needs Veronica's help. Along the way, Veronica meets new friends, reunites with old ones, and gets into a little bit of supernatural trouble.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Welcome to my newest fic - hopefully this one will have some regular updates since my schedule has been a little buck wild. If you're also interested in more Chansaw - check out my other story: Again, Again? 
> 
> Also, I'm not abandoning my other fics, this one is just something I've been working on for a while and want to get it out there!
> 
> as always my tumblr is: harlcyquinzcl so feel free to harass me there! <3 
> 
> Enjoy the story!

‘My name is Veronica Sawyer and I’m not afraid of death, but I start college tomorrow and I could not be more afraid. I’ve killed people; I’ve fought a wannabe school shooter off only to have him blow himself up on the football field, I poisoned the Queen of the high school, I shot the linebacker for fuck’s sake. Okay, well scratch that, I’m not afraid of dying, but I am afraid of the undead. Specifically, I am afraid of Heather Chandler. ‘ Veronica wrote feverishly in her journal.

Following her foray into the world of Bonnie and Clyde last year ending with a ‘bang!’ Veronica was almost certain she would be able to leave all of her baggage behind in Sherwood, Ohio, where it belonged. About a week ago she had noticed something that threw a monkey wrench in that plan – she thought she saw Heather. Brown had a whole week-long orientation session for all of the _lucky_ freshman so Veronica moved in early. She stepped out of her dorm room pretty late that night to make a trip to the bathroom and found herself staring down the hall, looking at a girl with curly red hair and a floral robe make her way into the bathroom. Veronica’s first instinct was to turn and run the other way. She had done her fair share of dealing with the undead version of her ex-best friend, but something beckoned her into the bathroom.

Stepping into the bathroom, the door making a much-too-loud-for-comfort creak as it shut behind her she called out, “Hello?” And silence. _Okay, cool_. She made her way into the bathroom, taking care of her business, and walked her way up to the sinks to wash her hands. She had probably just been dreaming or something, Heather wasn’t here. ‘Stupid, stupid, Sawyer.’ She thought to herself. Veronica glanced up to the long mirror above the sinks and froze instantaneously – she was there and standing a foot behind her. She gasped and turned around to face her, fear taking Veronica in a vice-like grasp. “Heather,” She breathed out, unsure of what else to say. A sickening smile crept up the redhead’s face as she crossed her arms and spoke, beginning to creep closer to the other girl, “Miss me?”

Veronica swallowed rather hard a few times in a row to gather her words but still found herself dumbfounded when speaking to _her, _“You?” Heather brought a hand up to rub at her temple and let out a laugh, “Do you see anyone else in here, Veronica?” She blinked hard; trying to will the specter she was seeing away, “I’m hallucinating”. The Drano covered ghost crept forward until she was a mere few inches away from Veronica and cocked her head to the side, “I’m afraid I’m almost as good as alive, Veronica.”

Then, instead of facing her fears, Veronica bolted. She couldn’t deal with seeing Heather, not now, not when classes were just about to start and she was finally getting a chance to move on with her life. Veronica was supposed to be just a normal stupid college student with an undeclared major and maybe at most some test anxiety. Not a god damned Ghostbuster. Veronica slid back into her room, thanking every god she could that her roommate was still fast asleep. She sighed and crawled back into her bed, attempting to force herself to fall asleep only to have that “being watched” feeling creep up her spine.

Turning around, Veronica found herself face to face with Heather. Biting back a yelp, not wanting to wake her roommate and have her think she was batshit crazy already, Veronica scooted back closer to the wall. Heather spoke in a calm tone, “We need to talk” She floundered for words, it wasn’t like there was anything for them to catch up on – Heather was dead and Veronica spent all summer trying to repent for killing her. Veronica’s whisper then broke the silence, her brain high on the defensive, “About what?”

“You left me behind,” Heather began, a small pout on her ghostly features, “And we have unfinished business.” Veronica wasn’t sure what Heather meant by ‘unfinished business’ and began to tense as she scooted further away from Heather. “I essentially killed the guy who killed you – what do you want?” Veronica mumbled, truly wishing she was just having some sleep-deprived waking nightmare. “Listen, Sawyer, I don’t want to be up in your big Ivy-League face either. I want to rest, I want to just move on and forget that your psycho boyfriend is why I’m not kicking your ass in person for getting into my dream school.” Heather spoke, the same harsh tone she had when she was alive coming back in full-force. Veronica didn’t realize she had wanted to go to Brown – ‘Maybe we could’ve roomed together or something. Maybe.’ Veronica mused before opening her mouth to speak – to apologize for the millionth time - only to have a half-translucent finger press to her lips. Weird. She could feel Heather touching her, which wasn’t at all exactly something she had been able to do to Veronica the last time they had communicated. “Listen whatever the powers-that-be that deal with this whole _thing_ told me that you, unfortunately, are the key to my getting to move on. I don’t particularly enjoy that you’re my unfinished business but it’s something that we have to deal with.”

“Me?” Veronica asked, kind of dumbfounded. There wasn’t much she could do for her, aside of apologize profusely, and there she was essentially begging Veronica to help her. Heather scoffed and closed in closer to the other girl, situating herself on the end of the bed, “Why do I think I followed you all the way out here?” She swallowed hard in an attempt to get a grip on her thoughts. Veronica’s dead best friend was there, she needed her help and she had to do something in order to not be haunted every day for the rest of her life. “What do I need to do?” Veronica murmured, still anxiously eyeing the sleeping form of her roommate, hoping she would stay soundly asleep.

For the first time ever, Veronica saw Heather get nervous. Heather rolled her bottom lip between her teeth and sank into the bed, the weight of her actually leaving an indent on the mattress. “That’s the part I don’t know – they just said I need _something _from you.” She sucked in an audible breath, straightened herself up more, “You’re stuck with me until we figure that part out Sawyer.” _Great_. “Can we work on figuring it out starting tomorrow? Not to be a dick or whatever, Heather, but I start classes tomorrow and I’m not exactly dying to sleep through all of them,” Veronica said, maybe a little harsher than necessary, but what Heather going to do? Pull a Poltergeist on her? She had her doubts.

Veronica attempted to lay down but found herself making full contact with Heather on the way down. Heather let out a yelp, “Ow, Jesus, Sawyer!” Veronica sat back up quickly as if she had been stung. She was truly embarrassed that she, one, hadn’t been able to pass through her, and two, that she had literally just thrown her entire body onto the other girl. Veronica had forgotten she could literally touch Heather. Yikes. “I thought ghosts weren’t supposed to be able to get hurt!” Veronica whispered, distressed, while a blush crept up her cheeks. “Well, think next time – Christ,” Heather mumbled, straightening out her spectral appearance. “Look last time I had to deal with you, you were like capital D, dead!” The brunette argued, bracing herself on her arms before she continued, “Can I please lay down so I can go to sleep?” Heather only shifted over, making just enough room for Veronica to lay down next to her and Veronica felt like her face was going to light on fire with embarrassment as she shot Heather a look. “What? It’s not like I have anywhere else to go Veronica.” Heather quickly shot back at Veronica, and well, shit. She was right. Begrudgingly, Veronica laid down next to her, turning her back away from the former Westerburg Queen. This was going to be a long night.

Surprisingly, she had fallen asleep almost instantaneously. When she woke up the next day to the feeling of arms wrapped tightly around her, Veronica’s still groggy brain could not have been more confused with the situation. As she moved to sit up she felt the figure behind her squeeze tighter and mumble something incoherent. Veronica fully sat up, twisting her head around to find Heather Chandler, still dead, but fast asleep and weirdly clingy. Which had meant last night hadn’t just been a nervous meltdown that she was having because classes started today. Oh _shit. _ She had to get to class. Veronica detangled herself from Heather’s arms and climbed over her and began to get ready as fast as possible.

In Veronica’s noisy haste to get ready, Heather stirred, sitting up and stretching, letting out a yawn. Veronica’s roommate had already left, which was a relief so she was able to communicate at full volume, “Good morning, Casper.” Heather scowled as she turned toward Veronica, legs dangling off of her bed. She was harder to see during the day for sure, the light just seemed to shoot through Heather like it was nothing. Veronica’s brows furrowed as she spoke, “Does it, uh, break ghost-code for you to be out during the day?” Heather offered a shrug and she collected her hands in her lap, “Do I look like I know anything about being dead? I don’t even know what I’m supposed to get from you.”

Veronica held her hands up in defense and let out a laugh, “Fair.” She sighed, throwing her messenger bag over her head and turned back to face Heather, “So, do you want to come with me to class or…?” Heather shrugged, adjusting her scrunchie and stood, “It’s not like I have literally anything better to do, Veronica.” We began the walk to class, and Veronica was now very aware that she had a literal specter that no one else could see, just following her around. Classes were fairly dull in all honesty, at least when Veronica could actually pay attention without Heather bitching and running around the room, trying to distract her.

And that brings Veronica back to the present – her live-in ghost ex-best friend harassing her in nearly every single class she had. “Pay attention to me,” Heather groaned, leaning in front of Veronica’s desk in the lecture hall as she attempted to take notes. Some professors really just jumped straight into teaching which was a little stressful for Veronica considering it was only the first week of _real _classes. She had a statistics assignment due on Wednesday and her creative writing class had two short stories due next week. It wasn’t a lot of homework, or you know, anything super _hard _but she wasn’t ready for things to kick start this quickly. Veronica pulled her head up from feverishly taking notes to shoot a quick look at Heather who leaned forward, clearly bored. “Come on Veronica,” She groaned, rolling her eyes. Veronica had begun to pretend that she wasn’t there when Heather climbed onto the desk, sitting cross-legged right in her line of sight.

While Heather was slightly translucent, she wasn’t exactly easy to see through. Veronica looked up, trying not to alert any of her other classmates that she was having a silent conversation with the ghost in front of her – or to them talking to absolutely nothing - and gave her absolute best pleading look to Heather. A grin spread across Heather’s face as she grabbed a hold of Veronica’s chin, forcing her to stay looking toward her and spoke, “Much better - but okay, as I was saying I have some ideas about what my unfinished businesses is,” Veronica released a sigh and attempted to feign paying attention to the board at the front of the room. “So, I was thinking that maybe you have to kill yourself,” Heather continued, and Veronica’s eyes shot further open in surprise. What a jackass, did she really think Veronica was going to _kill herself_ for her? Absolutely not! Heather shook her head and moved her hand up to Veronica’s cheek to give it a quick pat and spoke, “Listen, I’m not going to kill you, unlike some people I’m not a murderer and plus it’s only an idea, not a definitive answer, Sawyer.”

Veronica opened her mouth as if to speak, a fury almost taking her over but she then closed it, a scowl sitting on her face as Heather snickered, “Sorry, sore spot?” Everyone began to stand, signaling the fact that class was over and Veronica pulled back and began to walk back to her room, already _sick _of dealing with Heather’s bullshit. She was just so annoying! If Heather really wanted Veronica to help her why was she being such a bitch? This wasn’t exactly something that was encouraging Veronica to help her out. Veronica felt a presence come up behind her and she tensed up as a hand delicately grabbed at her arm but forced herself to keep walking. She figured it was Heather but then she heard a voice that was, fortunately not Heather.

Veronica turned around to come face to face with a girl who looked a little nervous, “Sorry – hi – uh you dropped this.” She held a notebook out toward her, and Veronica breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh man, I must’ve been spaced out, thank you!” Heather had been messing with her all day and interacting with someone, _not _Heather Chandler was always a relief. “No, it’s okay! I was the one who grabbed you – that’s my bad.” She said, ducking her head and pushing her hair behind her ear. She was…cute. Maybe it was the fashion sense; a big sweater with some crazy geometric pattern on it. Maybe it was the fact her hair literally glimmered in the sunlight like an_ actual_ ray of sunshine with all the golden and orange hues popping out. Maybe it was the fact she seemed as nervous as Veronica did about meeting new people, but she took the leap.

“I’m Veronica Sawyer by the way,” Veronica said offering a hand to her, which she took gladly. The other girl grinned and replied, “Oh, I’m Heather. Heather Kennedy.” Veronica swore to _god _that her pulse literally stopped in that exact moment. The newly introduced Heather noticed the brief freeze Veronica took and knew that something was up with her and then cocked her head to the side and spoke, “Are you okay…?” Veronica let out a laugh and shook her head; ugh, Veronica had to pretend that wasn’t the creepiest coincidence that she had ever dealt with. Lots of girls were named Heather – no big. “Yeah! It’s just funny, um, I was best friends with a group of girls in high school and they were all named Heather,” Veronica breathed, trying to come up with another excuse, “Just a really funny coincidence, you know?”

Heather seemed to acknowledge that as a good-enough answer and offered a smile, “Oh, weird!” A silence fell between the two girls as life continued to move by them on campus. Veronica was anxious; she just didn’t know how to talk to people, especially when, well, when she was attracted to people. Heather broke the silence quickly, “Would you want to hang out sometime, maybe?” Veronica’s face perked up and replied easily, “Yeah, that’d be great – uh I can give you my room phone number? Maybe we can do something like Wednesday night?”

Heather nodded and pulled out a pen and gently grabbed Veronica’s hand and instead scrawled her own phone number on it. Veronica audibly swallowed and froze as Heather scribbled on her hand. Veronica glanced at the number, she had written “Heather K.” along with her number. The period on the ‘K’ was shaped like a heart rather than a period. And that’s when Veronica swooned, maybe too hard but she managed to wave goodbye to Heather who, in turn, gave her a small shy goodbye and they went their separate ways.

She finally reached her dorm room, thankful that her roommate was boy-obsessed and usually out with her boyfriend so she could mostly have the room to herself. Veronica flopped down on her bed, her arms thrown up above her head and let out a sigh. What a long day. It, unfortunately, was about to get longer, Heather Chandler appeared behind her; something Veronica had just grown accustomed to by this point. With her face buried in a pillow, Veronica groaned and greeted the redhead, “Hello, Heather.” Heather rolled her eyes and sat down on the parallel bed and replied, “Aren’t you happy to see me?” While rolling over to face her Veronica spoke, “Not exactly! I’m not going to kill myself, Heather.”

Veronica pulled herself into a lounging position, resting her elbow on the bed and placing her head in her hand and sighed, “What do you want now? I have a lot of homework to do and I’d just prefer for you to get whatever it is over with before I’m neck-deep in equations.” Heather squinted at Veronica for a second, leaning forward slightly, studying the pen markings on her hand before she replied, “Who’s Heather K?” Veronica hated that almost every single time she got nervous about something that she would blush almost instantaneously. In an attempt to conceal the growing heat on her face she looked away and blurted out, “Uh, some girl I almost left my stats notebook somewhere and she gave it back to me. Asked if I wanted to hang out sometime and so she gave me her number.” Veronica shrugged and forced herself into a sitting position, grabbing the notebook and statistics textbook from her bag so she could begin to work on her homework since Heather wasn’t willing to go ahead and cut to the chase.

“Oh, you _like_ her,” Heather said, realization creeping in her voice. She had been Veronica’s constant shadow for the past week so of course, it was hard to hide anything from her. Veronica sucked in a quick breath and closed her eyes trying to will the awful feeling in the pit of her stomach from bottoming out, “Can you drop it?” The ghost in front of Veronica began to mock her, “You’re such a softie Sawyer - you have a crush on that girl!” Being pretty sure she was already 100% red, Veronica looked up at Heather, giving up the façade of not being totally and completely embarrassed and spoke, “Heather can you literally leave me alone; I don’t have time to deal with you right now.” She shook her head and crossed her arms and had moved toward her, a grin on her stupid ghost-face that Veronica could only perceive as taunting, “So, you’re a dyke right?”

Veronica slammed her pencil down and sighed, exasperated, “Heather can you _fuck_ _off_?” It wasn’t that she cared about Heather knowing she was attracted to girls – Veronica knew she couldn’t do anything to her about it due to the whole ‘being dead’ thing. Veronica did, however, have the sinking feeling that she just knew that Heather was about to bully her for the literal rest of her life for being into women. Heather didn’t flinch at Veronica’s sudden outburst and instead lifted a brow and spoke clearly, “Veronica, I don’t give a shit who you’re attracted to, I just think it’s interesting that it’s a girl is all.” Bracing herself for the answer Veronica couldn’t stop herself from continuing on and asked, “Why?” Heather looked so confident, which was something Veronica had pretty much always envied about her. She was just _so _sure of herself; even in death, she was always _just _right. “If I had known we had something in common I don’t think I would’ve kicked you off the team,” Heather admitted.

A moment passed of Veronica’s brain trying to decipher what Heather had said to her and then the realization hit her like a freight train. “Wait you’re gay?” Veronica blurted out, absolute shock taking her over. Heather remained steely and spoke, “There’s a lot of things about me that you just don’t know.” Veronica, now actually excited pushed her school things off to the side and shook her head, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, no you can’t just be like ‘I’m gay’ and then not want to talk about it – how did you keep it a secret?” Heather rolled her eyes and let out an _actual _laugh. That was something Veronica had maybe heard once or twice before Heather had died and it was almost freeing to hear it from the other girl. “I’d drive to Cleveland to see girls. It was the closest big city and I didn’t – I couldn’t exactly risk trying to date anyone in Sherwood.”

A smile grew on Veronica’s face and she shook her head and mumbled, “I had no idea.” Heather mirrored the smile, a softer one than the ghost usually carried, “It was hard, but it could’ve been worse. I wasn’t bullied for it or anything and I know Heather and Heather knew.” Veronica rose an eyebrow, “Were they cool about it?” Chandler offered a shrug and leaned back on the bed again, “They never said anything bad about it – Mac caught me making out with a girl once and that’s when I started to go to the city.” The girls carried on for the rest of the night, excitedly talking about what it meant to them to be attracted to women. Veronica admitting that she had never really had the chance to fully explore being into both girls and guys but she knew that college was a good place to finally not have to worry about the repercussions of her actions. The pair talked on and on for hours until Veronica could barely keep her eyes open. Maybe, just maybe, there was more to Heather Chandler than Veronica initially thought. Maybe she’d get to know more about her.


	2. Phantasma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica dreams in Heather shades of hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I changed my tumblr whoops it's: harlcyquinzcl.tumblr.com so feel free to bug me there now
> 
> also.....SORRY THIS TOOK 20 YEARS TO UPDATE MY BAD  
I was in two shows and worked on a third one in that time (i know blah blah blah theatre kid problems)
> 
> but please leave some feedback and lemme know what you guys think!

The nightmares came in phases for Veronica – first, it was the one where she had to watch Heather die again. She had looked so desperate and there had been _nothing _Veronica could do and so she panicked. Heather had clung to her, her breath coming in heaving gasps, her usually cold and uncaring eyes darting around and finally landing on Veronica’s as if to scream, ‘Help me!’ But the drain cleaner had already done its work on Heather and she collapsed. Then came her least favorite version of the dream – the one where she didn’t let go of Veronica, a moment passed by of Veronica trying to wrench herself free from the dead girl’s hands when Heather’s eyes slid back open.

A hazy white film covered the blue of Heather’s eyes and her grip tightened on Veronica’s blazer, refusing to let go. A sickly smile popped up on the undead’s face, teeth stained with blue drain cleaner, as well as specks of blood, which Veronica figured were likely from Heather’s throat. Veronica began to truly struggle against her, fear knocking the air out of her. While attempting to keep Heather at an arm’s length, she fell onto her back. The redhead climbed on top of her, adjusting her grip to squeeze around Veronica’s throat. Veronica struggled against the other girl’s hands trying to force her off of her. She couldn’t breathe at all and when she thought she was going to die – she woke up.

Veronica sat straight up, her chest quickly rising and falling, and her eyes unable to focus. Her gaze darted around the room, fear taking her over. Her breath came in ragged stops and starts as she slowly began to adjust to her surroundings. No roommate – shocker. Veronica swallowed hard and pulled her knees up to her chest, trying to regulate her breathing and get a _true_ grip on the reality around her. Heather was dead. She couldn’t hurt her. She was safe.

As if some sick twist of fate, the ghost form of her ex-best friend phased through the door. Veronica did something rather uncharacteristic of herself – she cowered. Veronica scooted as far back onto her bed as she could, while maintaining eye contact with the ghost, a meek whimper rising from the back of her throat. Heather’s brows to all but shot off of her face and she carefully made her way over to Veronica, approaching her like a wild animal. “Hey – whoa – whoa – whoa – Sawyer. Veronica. It’s just me.” Chandler cooed softly, carefully placing a hand over Veronica’s shoulder. Heather was…uncomfortable with dealing with other people in states like this, but god she felt like she had to at least _try _to help Veronica chill out. I mean it was either calm her down or be stuck with someone freaking the fuck out, so the former option sounded more appealing.

Veronica shrank back for another moment, still trapped in that bleary state between reality and sleep before she truly locked eyes with the apparition. Veronica released a shaky breath as she came back down to earth – this was Heather, real Heather, she wasn’t going to try to kill her. She was just a ghostly annoyance she had to live with. Veronica swallowed once more and then ran her tongue over her lips before explaining, “Nightmare.”

Heather pulled herself up onto the bed, her movements still delicate and cautious as she sat next to the still-trembling girl as she asked, “What was it about?”

The living girl sucked in a sharp breath and offered a shrug, “What aren’t they about? I mean, it’s everything from last year, Heather. Everything.” Veronica let out a soft laugh as her eyes fixated on her own lap, “This one you strangled me to death after you drank the drain cleaner and – I guess you walking in – I thought it wasn’t just a dream.”

“I’m not going to strangle you to death,” Heather quickly stated, rolling her eyes ever so slightly. “If I wanted you dead, I would probably be a little more dramatic about it – plus I’m a ghost – _hello_ – I would never use my hands to kill you. I’d probably just try to scare you to death.”

Veronica gave a weak laugh at Heather’s attempt to comfort her, “You almost did when you came in a minute ago.”

“Sorry,” Heather mumbled, as she cautiously placed a hand on Veronica, ghosting her fingers over her back in an attempt to soothe the other girl.

Veronica sank into the touch, shifting her weight so she was resting her head on Heather’s shoulder. Heather’s hand ceased its previous job and wrapped itself around the half-awake Veronica. Silence filled the room for a few beats – Heather unsure what to say to comfort Veronica any further and Veronica lost deep in her own thought.

“Sorry,” Veronica uttered almost too suddenly.

Heather’s face scrunched up and she raised a brow, “What for? It’s not like you woke me up or like I’d be doing anything better right now.”

Veronica swallowed heavily and sat up a little straighter, pulling herself from the ghost’s arms and turned in to face her, “No – I’ve never –“ Veronica buzzed her lips together, trying to ignore the anxious thoughts flying around in her head, “I’ve never really like _actually _apologized for killing you – and I know it’s not like something you can really apologize for doing – or make up for it – or pretend it didn’t happen but – I mean if I keep having these nightmares that has to mean I’m guilty – right? And you don’t have to forgiv-“

Veronica was cut off by Heather gingerly placing her hands on either side of Veronica’s face and speaking, “Shut up,” Heather’s voice was gentle, almost soft, as she continued, “You didn’t know what it was.”

“No, but – “

Heather placed a finger over the other girl’s lips and shook her head, “No – you didn’t know what it was – and I’m being genuine here, Sawyer, we are fine – there’s nothing to forgive.” Heather bit her lip and thought for a moment, letting her hands fall away from Veronica. Veronica carefully studied the dead girl – maybe she had been right and there was a lot more to Heather Chandler than she had initially thought. ‘Kind’ wasn’t exactly a word she associated with the other girl, but there was, surprising her yet again.

“If I were still alive I wouldn’t even blame you, Veronica.” Heather sighed, returning her focus to the other girl, “It’s not like I can vilify you over something that wasn’t even your fault. So – we’re fine – I promise.”

Veronica gave a meek nod in response as she let out a small yawn, “Sorry.” Heather let out a laugh, taking a glance at the time on Veronica’s alarm clock. 3:33. Gross. “Okay, you have to be up in like four hours – back to sleep – come on – you can’t miss class this early in the semester.” Heather began as she moved off of the bed, coaxing Veronica into a laying down position.

“Night, Heather, um thanks for talking me down.”

“Goodnight, Veronica.”

Veronica slipped back to sleep fairly easily – she was exhausted. The nightmares always took a massive toll on her and so it wasn’t hard just to _pass _out. What she didn’t expect was getting a third variation on the whole ‘dying Heather’ nightmare.

She found herself on the doorstep of the massive Chandler residence. A few things were different from how things had _actually _gone down. In the dream it was nighttime still – meaning that she had theoretically just thrown up on Heather and then…followed her home? Her nose crinkled up as she took in more of her surroundings – she didn’t feel drunk – was she drunk? If anything, Veronica felt very ‘in control’ of her surroundings. That’s when it hit her – JD wasn’t with her in this dream either. She swiveled around to verify he wasn’t just standing further away – he was nowhere in sight. Weird.

After deeming that she was the one in control of this dream – nightmare – whatever, she stepped into the Chandler’s house. Veronica crept her way up the stairs to an almost pitch-black hallway. The only source of light streaming in was the slightly ajar door to Heather’s room. Veronica wet her lips and let out a shaky sigh as she carefully made her way through the door.

Heather’s room wasn’t out of the ordinary in any way – it was the same as it always had been. Prissy and pink - that was the Heather MO. What shocked her was seeing a ‘normal’ Heather walk in from her bathroom fussing with the scrunchie caught in her hair.

The two girls froze upon seeing each other, Veronica out of fear, and Heather – well Heather out of confusion. The look on Heather’s face immediately sent Veronica into a state of anxiety – this was a bad idea, she shouldn’t have come here – if she was smart maybe she could make it home –

Her thoughts were cut off by Heather, whose face slid into a goofy smile as she spoke, “I didn’t think you were going to come over.”

“What do you mean?” Veronica asked, her brows furrowing, now all too perplexed about the situation. Was she missing something that was going on here? Why was Heather suddenly so _relaxed _in front of her?

“I thought you didn’t get the hint – I mean I know it wasn’t exactly _obvious_ \- but you’re here,” Heather answered easily, sitting down on her bed.

“What hint?” The brunette mumbled still not entirely clear as to what the _hell _Heather was talking about.

Silence fell over the two for a moment before Heather slurred out and patted a space next to her on the bed, “Come here.” Veronica’s body moved almost of its own accord and sat down next to the redhead. She still vaguely smelled of alcohol from that night’s festivities. God, was she still drunk? Veronica shifted uncomfortably and gathered her hands in her lap where she waited for Heather to do _something. _ Heather turned in to face Veronica, pulling her legs up in a crossed position. Veronica studied the other girl cautiously, taking note of their almost too-close proximity.

“You know – I don’t know if anyone’s actually had the balls to tell you this, Sawyer, but you actually looked beautiful at the party tonight.” Heather murmured lazily, one of her fingers moving to wrap around one of Veronica’s curls. Veronica stopped breathing. This was a dream – she was in control – she could stop her.

“Um – thanks, Heather.” She managed out in her flustered state. Her mouth then moved almost _certainly _on its own, “You really think so?” Veronica immediately made a face after the words left her mouth. It felt like she was watching someone else pilot her body.

Heather let out a small laugh and rolled her eyes, “No, I’m lying to you and I only wanted you to come over so I could bully you.” Heather caught the apprehension sitting on Veronica’s face and she quickly corrected herself, allowing her voice to grow softer yet again, “I’d never do that to you – you mean too much to me.”

“I do?” Veronica spoke, her voice more incredulous than she would’ve liked. She attempted a smooth recovery by continuing, “This is just kind of the first time I’m hearing about it.”

“That’s why I wanted you to come over, I can’t keep pretending that I don’t give a shit about you – and I wanted to show you.” Heather’s spoke, her voice dropping lower, tripping over her words ever so slightly in her tipsy state. Then the thought struck Veronica and she went beet red – _oh shit, she’s flirting with me. _It was just some stupid corny hormone infused dream her brain concocted as a mediocre antidote to the nightmares she’d be having. That was it.

Then, Veronica learned she truly was not in control of the dream; Heather pulled herself onto Veronica’s lap. Veronica’s first reaction was to freeze. She was certain disintegrating would’ve been easier than confronting the fact that Heather was all drunkenly doe-eyed and trapping her there.

“Relax,” Heather murmured, studying Veronica’s face for a long moment. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to get you alone?” Heather laughed, clumsily tucking a stray bit hair behind the other girl’s ear. Veronica was mortified.

She broke the immense eye contact that Heather was so hell-bent on them keeping and mustered her courage up to reply. The words that Veronica wanted to come out of her mouth were more along the lines of _‘Heather, you’re drunk, stop’, ‘This is just a dream, leave me alone’, and ‘You don’t actually want to do this’. _The words that tumbled out instead were all but her own – the words sounding innocent and all-too-comfortable to be coming from her own mouth, “Me? How long?” Veronica was quickly becoming a prisoner in her own body, which was rapidly turning this dream into a nightmare.

Heather gave yet another lazy half-smile to the girl underneath her and quickly returned, “Sophomore year – we had French together – we had to work on that one presentation, remember?”

Veronica gave a small nod and answered, “I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me after that.” Veronica remembered the project too well. Heather had invited her over to her house to work on it multiple times only to kick her out as soon as her parents got home.

“Mom and dad, don’t like when I have girls over,” Heather laughed, gently bringing her hands up to cup Veronica’s face. She pulled her closer but Veronica snapped back to the forefront of bodily autonomy and placed a hand on Heather’s shoulder to keep her at a distance.

“They know?” Veronica asked, genuinely surprised, her heart pounding in her chest.

Heather dropped her hands from Veronica’s face, bringing them to rest on her sides, and released a breath she had been holding in. A small frown took place of the drunken smile she had initially plastered on her face, “It was an accident, they weren’t supposed to find out.”

Veronica’s face fell at the admission and let her hand fall to further down Heather’s side to her waist and she murmured, “I didn’t know.” A heavy silence took over the pair, the mood dropping in an almost instant. Heather let out a small, almost strangled, laugh and shook her head.

“You don’t want this do you?” Heather asked, gesturing between the two of them. Her voice sounded shaky and it was clear she was starting to lose some of the courage the alcohol had granted her. “I’m so stupid.” The redhead groaned before the other girl could answer, pulling herself off of Veronica’s lap and standing across the room. “You’re straight, right?” Heather asked, her voice regaining the usual attitude it exhibited. She was unwilling to turn herself to face Veronica, her embarrassment evident with the blaze plastered across her cheeks.

Veronica was, easily, the most uncomfortable she had been in a dream. What she would’ve given for undead Heather just to burst in and strangle her to death. That was easier than whatever was happening here. However, she was clearly not in charge of what was happening to her, and she decided rolling with the punches would be her best option. Veronica stood and carefully closed the distance between Heather and herself - she sucked in a deep breath and answered truthfully, “No, I’m not.”

Heather slowly turned around, the red tinge still staining her cheeks. The hurt was still evident in her eyes, confused tears welling up in them. Then, Veronica did something that was most definitely of her own accord – not something that whatever nightmare version of her self was forcing her to do; She kissed Heather. Their lips crashed for only a moment, Heather wrapping her arms around Veronica’s neck and Veronica’s hands awkwardly resting on the sides of Heather’s bicep for the moment. They pulled away, a light breathless panting filling the room around them; Heather went to speak and -

Veronica woke, yet again, with a start. Her heartbeat with enough fervor that she could’ve mistaken it for a drum. She stole a glance at the nearby alarm clock – 7:15. _Ugh. _Veronica carefully brought a hand up to her lips. What a weird fucking dream. It’s not like she and Heather could’ve ever dated. Plus she was dead. She can’t date a dead girl. Especially when she’s haunting her every waking second. She sighed and dropped her arms to her sides, staring up at the ceiling. She wasn’t into Heather. Right? Okay, well she couldn’t say that she had _never _checked her out - it was like appreciating fine art. Looking at Heather was the same as looking at the Mona Lisa – simple appreciation. Veronica let out a groan – god she was so fucking corny – she was so _fucked_.

She decided sleep was no longer on the plate for the day and threw the covers to the side and began to pull herself out of bed. Veronica glanced at the bed across from her own – the Heather she had gotten herself acquainted with was sleeping. Well, Veronica assumed it was sleeping – she didn’t know if ghosts exactly needed sleep or if it was just something Heather did to gain a sense of normalcy. She made a small mental note to ask her about it later but still moved around the room quietly as not to disturb her. A knock broke the silence of the room as Veronica was mid-way through throwing her hair up and she paused, shooting another glance over to the clock – 7:22 – it wasn’t exactly super early but not a lot of people were exactly lively this early in the morning.

Veronica moved over to the door and pulled it open to reveal – Heather. As in Heather Kennedy. Immediately, Veronica glanced down at her pajamas and silently cursed herself for dressing like such a dork. A Star Wars shirt and shorts with cats on them weren’t exactly the best things to woo a girl. _Oh, fuck_. Veronica went through a range of emotions at two realizations: one, she was supposed to walk with Heather to class, and two, that the dreams about Chandler were only making things a little more confusing about the feelings she was supposed to be having for Kennedy.

“Sorry, did I wake you up? I know I’m a little early, but I wanted to see if you wanted to get coffee before class?” Heather Kennedy said, breaking the brief tension between them.

“Um, yeah, sure give me a minute - I just, uh, need to get dressed,” Veronica replied, anxiety skyrocketing. “Uh – do you wanna come in or…?” She asked, taking a small step back into the room. Kennedy gave a tiny nod, a small smile taking place on her face, “Oh, sure!” The smaller girl stepped through the door and idly stood by Veronica’s desk.

Veronica quickly got to work at getting ready; kind of trying to ignore the fact the Normal Human Girl she was supposed to be into was looking around her room. In her haste, she slid out of her pajamas and into maybe something a little dressier than she had been wearing since she had started college. It was one of her old Heathers Sanctioned Uniforms. It worked though – they had been right that the whole short skirt and blazer combination was a good look on her. It definitely helped ‘up’ her confidence if anything. Once she changed, she quickly grabbed the book-bag shoved underneath her desk and threw her textbook and notebook into it.

Finally, she turned to face Heather Kennedy and spoke, “Hey, sorry, I – sorry I didn’t think I had slept in that late – just slept really badly. I’m, um, ready?” Veronica made her way over to the door and held it open for Kennedy, her barely awake brain managed to register the fact that the ghost was rising from its – she really needed to ask Chandler if she actually slept or not. Veronica shot a pleading look to the undead and retrained her gaze on the girl who was walking out the door. Veronica couldn’t help but bolt without another glance at Chandler.

The walk to the on-campus coffee house wasn’t far – it was only three buildings down from the dorm, so not exactly an entire Odyssey. Kennedy turned to Veronica as they got in line and gave the tiniest smile, “Let me get this, it can be payback for waking you up.”

Veronica’s own smile grew on her face and she shook her head, “You didn’t wake me up – I just slept weird.” It wasn’t exactly a lie but Veronica found that honesty was always the best policy, especially when trying to get to know someone, “Just had some bad dreams, you know?”

The smaller girl nodded empathetically as the line surged forwards another couple of people. “What kind of bad dreams?” Kennedy asked, a slight tinge of actual concern in her voice. Veronica went to open her mouth but was cut-off as the barista called out for the next people in line to move ahead. Heather gestured for Veronica to go first and let out a small laugh as she joked, “Ladies first.”

Veronica let out a laugh but feigned looking around for a moment before looking back over to her companion and retorting, “I don’t think I see any ladies but you?” Heather Kennedy grinned, releasing her own little chuckle, rolled her eyes and stepped forward and admitted her defeat, “Fine – but I’m still buying!”

The pair ordered their drinks and began their walk off to class, Veronica’s inability to wake up in the morning nearly making them late. They shuffled into the classroom and took the seats nearest the door as the clock chimed 8, indicating the start of the class. Veronica took a moment to catch herself, letting out a laugh to herself and began to dig in her bag for her notebook and textbook, placing them on the desk and shifting her focus toward the professor.

It wasn’t that she _liked _Stats. She just, truthfully, had to hone in all of her focus or else she would fall behind. Math just sucked. Veronica lazily took notes on the formula she didn’t quite understand how to use when a familiar translucent figure came into her line of vision. She hesitated for a moment as her eyes flickered up to catch a glance of Heather Chandler’s. A blush immediately pushed its way up onto Veronica’s cheeks as she averted gaze – she couldn’t stop thinking about the dream she had earlier or more specifically, the kiss she had willingly given Chandler in it.

“Why are you so jumpy?” The ghost asked, perching herself on the edge of the desk. Veronica gave a quick look indicating something along the lines of ‘I can’t talk, Heather, kind of in a class full of normal people’. Heather let out a huff and rolled her eyes and continued on, nodding her head toward Heather Kennedy who was sat next to Veronica, “Did your date go well? At least I’m assuming it was a date – or she thought it was a date.”

Veronica bit her lip almost to the point of it bleeding before she let out a huff of air. Heather Kennedy shot a glance over to Veronica letting out a small laugh and rose her eyebrow, “You okay?”

Tense, Veronica immediately whispered back, “Yeah, just, ugh stats you know? Standard deviations are a bitch.” Veronica gave the living Heather a quick smile and turned her attention back to her note-taking. Well, truly her attention was back on her dead best friend. Furiously, she scribbled down on her notes, “_Why does it matter?”_ Her gaze flickered up to catch Chandler’s eyes, giving a quick glance down to the paper as if an indication for the ghost to read it.

Heather allowed herself to phase through the desk, walking to the other side but re-corporealized herself as she leaned next to Veronica to read the note. Veronica turned her attention to Chandler’s face and a small smile appeared as she picked up on a habit she somehow hadn’t noticed before, Heather mouthed along with the words as she read the short sentence. No, _no, _wait. She was supposed to be angry with Heather for getting all up and ectoplasm-y in her personal life. Not thinking she was cute – wait, no not –

Veronica’s inner scolding was cut short by Chandler speaking up, “It’s not like I have much of anything to do, Ronnie,” She let out a laugh as she perched herself back up on the desk, “I’m dead, I don’t have my own life to live, might as well live vicariously through you, since we’re still mysteriously connected and everything,” Heather finished, joking around by waving her arms in front of her as if she were truly, a spooky ghost.

Veronica offered a minuscule shrug, she hadn’t thought of it that way, she knew she had been a part of the reason Heather Chandler didn’t have a life, however, it didn’t even come to her attention that because Heather was dead, her life was _their _life. Shit, she felt like a jackass. The brunette quickly scribbled a real answer, the right answer, “I don’t know if she’s gay.”

Chandler craned her neck to the side, carefully studying Veronica’s handwriting again and gave a nod as she replied, “Have you seen how she dresses? Plus, whenever she looks at you it’s like she’s about to either jump your bones or declare her _undying _love – disgusting, trust me, I know – but she’s into, Sawyer.”

Veronica quickly looked up back at Chandler, she sounded, almost pissed about it? The fact that Veronica had found someone to love? Whatever, if Heather decided she was going to be jealous so could continue being jealous. She still wasn’t going to kill herself just because Heather wanted to be able to ‘move on’ or whatever it was she wanted. Plus, it wasn’t that she and Kennedy were dating. It was a casual hanging out kind of thing. Just friends.

Veronica exchanged her glance over to the living Heather in her life, who pulled her head up from her own notes. Kennedy shot Veronica a shy smile and mumbled, “Hey”. A breathless laugh emerged from Veronica’s mouth. Maybe she was cute. Maybe they _were _a little further than friends.


	3. Complications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica is caught between two very different, but important relationships

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on tumblr: harlcyquinzcl.tumblr.com
> 
> cw: abuse mention?

It had been one hell of a week for Veronica Sawyer. She was – well maybe – dating a girl. Which, given her whole trauma around dating in general, anxiety-inducing. Did she like Heather Kennedy? Yes, absolutely. Was she traumatized by the fact the only other person she had ever dated was a spree killer who had blown himself up? Yes, absolutely. Was she going to let that hold her back? …Maybe. So, Veronica found herself somewhere between hell and happiness. Heather was a sweetheart; she wrote Veronica little notes during their stats class and came over to help her figure out the homework, which then devolved into them staying up significantly too late and barely finishing the homework. She had brought Veronica coffee to class three days that week, which was pretty adorable if you had asked Veronica. They just spent a lot of time together but that’s where it drove Veronica fucking insane – they hadn’t talked about it – they hadn’t talked about it at all. So, she thought she was going to ask her on a date. Well, okay, maybe. 

They had gone back to the coffee shop, hand-in-hand, shoulders occasionally knocking together, and giggles erupting from their lips. That night was poetry night and Veronica and Heather had decided they would check it out to see if there was anything interesting, and if not they were going to get a couple cups of coffee out of it anyway. Veronica had bought coffee for them that time; it was becoming a sort of exchange between the two – almost a competition – about who could do what for each other, almost trying to be more chivalrous than the other girl. 

“You know, I write poetry sometimes,” Veronica admitted quietly, immediately hiding behind her latte. Kennedy let an infectious grin spread across her face as she replied, “Really?” Veronica nodded as she nursed a sip of the caffeine in her cup. “It’s not very good, but it’s something,” She mumbled, returning the blonde girl’s grin. “You should go up there and do one,” Kennedy encouraged, taking one of Veronica’s hands and giving it a squeeze. She continued, her voice hopeful, “Or you can just perform one for me if you want to go back to my dorm.” 

“Uh, sure. I mean going back to your dorm, I don’t think I’m exactly up for a performance.” Veronica laughed out as she began to stand. Heather followed suit as they walked out of the coffee shop, catching Veronica’s hand in her own. The walk back was relatively quick, only allowing for some playful banter. Heather sat on her bed, adjusting so she was leaning up against the wall. Veronica was always so jealous that Heather had a single – it wasn’t like Veronica’s roommate was ever there it was more that she had to worry about the possibility of someone walking in at any moment, this felt more comfortable. Veronica took her usual seat next to Heather on her bed, but began to dig in her bag for the journal she always carried around with her – it was actually funny – she had started carrying it her senior year of high school and it held more notes about the Heathers than she cared to admit. She leafed through the book for a moment where she settled on a poem that she didn’t think was too embarrassing to read. Veronica spoke up taking her eyes off the page for a mere moment to look at Heather as she spoke, “I’ve not really read these to anyone before.” Heather gave her usual goofy grin and shrugged, “So? It’s still from you so I bet it’s still really good.” 

Veronica hesitated for a moment; the poem was about Heather, not Heather Kennedy, but Heather Chandler. She had written it over the summer when she had been in the depths of her Heather-related nightmares. She swallowed and began to speak, her voice coarse and trembling, “On restless nights, the image of her comes to me,” She sucked in a soft breath trying to steady out her nerves, “Like a soft whisper in my mind, for just a moment I remember her eyes, her smile, her cheeks,” Veronica swallowed and continued again, “A warm rush fills my heart, and traces of my lungs, I can feel my lips pull into a grin. As the thought of her, for even a moment, fills my desolate heart.”

Thoroughly embarrassed, Veronica closed her journal and looked up expectantly as she chewed on her lip. She could feel her face heating up and she let out a soft sigh. “Who was that about?” Heather Kennedy asked, her face softening as she leaned toward Veronica. “One of my friends – she – um – wow, not to be like super heavy or anything but she, she died and I guess I was feeling super emotional about it,” Veronica answered with a clipped laugh. Heather leaned back suddenly covering her mouth, “Oh! Sorry! I didn’t realize.” 

“No, it’s okay – it’s like something I can talk about – it doesn’t freak me out as much as it used to – I mean like it’s weird that she’s…” The word ‘dead’ died on Veronica’s lips, she wet her lips, letting out another small laugh, “It’s okay, um do you want to do something? Movie night or whatever?” Heather looked hesitant to press further and allowed the topic to die as she crawled out of bed to turn on her TV, “I know they’re doing a Twin Peaks marathon until the new season comes out – do you want to watch that?”

Veronica nodded an affirmation and Heather hopped back on the bed. Veronica leaned against the other girl, her head resting on her shoulder. The first few episodes went by with the pair sitting in what was basically silence. Veronica let a yawn out and Heather let out a laugh, “You can lay down if you want.” Veronica then decided to be daring and brought head to rest on Heather’s lap. Heather happily accepted the new position and began to gently play with Veronica’s hair. 

Veronica began to think about whether or not she could ask her on a date or not or if they could even date. She knew she liked Heather a whole lot, she definitely got a little too giddy around her. Veronica’s current position, however, didn’t lend itself to exactly talking about anything gay on the off-chance Heather wasn’t. She knew it was 1990 but, shit the AIDS crisis had just essentially decimated any reputation gay people had and she didn’t really want to risk one of her few friendships on campus. Plus, Veronica knew she was still attracted to guys – she didn’t want it to become a situation where someone told her to pick a side. Veronica had her head tilted toward the small TV Heather had on her desk. Veronica bit her lip, stealing a quick glance up to the girl she was laying on; she looked contented, lips slightly pursed, focused on the Twin Peaks episode in front of her.

A soft smile came across Veronica’s face as she dared herself to speak, “Hey, uh, Heather?” As if broken from a trance, Heather looked down at the girl on top of her and let out a small, almost hummed, “Huh?” Veronica’s mouth went dry and she buzzed her lips as if to will herself to speak again, her jaw hung open for a moment before she finally willed sound to pass her lips, “Are you – you know – like – into girls?” 

A look of surprise cropped up on Heather’s face as she slowly raised an eyebrow and replied, “Yes?” Veronica pulled her head out of Heather’s lap, up into a cross-legged position next to the other girl, her heart absolutely up in her throat. Before she could speak, however, Heather spoke again while rather confused, “I thought you knew?” Veronica’s cheeks tinged with a hint of pink as she blurted out, “I mean I figured, but like I didn’t want to make assumptions and – sorry.” She let out an awkward laugh and averted her gaze from Heather.

The silence was palpable for nearly a minute before Heather made an attempt to ease the discomfort between the two, “If you’re uncomfortable with it it’s okay – I just thought we…” She trailed off attempting to find appropriate wording, “So, you’re not a lesbian?” Veronica released another quick laugh before gauging the look on Heather’s face. “Sorry – I – no? But I mean – I also like girls.” Veronica cursed her awkwardness when it came to flirting. Was this flirting or was she just actually trying to make less of an ass out of herself? For one, she couldn’t tell. 

“Oh!” Heather said, her voice almost delighted. “So are we – I mean we’ve been spending a lot of time together so I don’t know if I was just having a lot of wishful thinking but are we…?” Veronica’s anxiety slipped away for a mere moment as she laughed out, “I think so and like do you want to go do something sometime?” Heather mirrored Veronica and released a bright laugh, tucking her hair behind her ear, “Awesome.” The blonde hesitated for a moment, still unsure as to where they officially stood, but quickly grabbed the other girl by the cheeks and pulled her in for a kiss.

Veronica smiled into the kiss, allowing her arms to settle on Heather’s sides, gently pulling her closer. Heather broke the kiss for a quick moment, letting out a laugh at Veronica’s actions. They sank into each other for a moment, just finally fully relaxing around each other for the first time. Veronica slowly pulled back – needing to breathe was a sudden, urgent, thing and her chest heaved as a giant smile grew on her face. Heather pulled back, catching Veronica’s line of vision and returned the grin. 

  
Veronica woke up to find herself tucked into the side of Heather Kennedy. They had essentially spent the entirety of the night kissing until they weren’t able to stay awake any longer. It was – weird – innocent? The last time Veronica had made any attempt to be in a relationship at all she had fucked on the first date. This was something entirely different. It just felt wholesome comparatively – and the confirmation of feelings was something that Veronica was happy to have reaffirmed. She pulled herself up and off of the sleeping figure and took in her surroundings; almost disoriented as to where she was or what time it was at all. Then it hit her – fuuuuuuuck - she had class. Frantic, Veronica stood and began to pull her socks and shoes on – as she glanced at the time – 8:27 AM – she was so late, so, so, incredibly late. She’d have to go back to her dorm and get her textbook and a notebook – maybe change just in case she saw someone from the day before. Her mind was running a mile a minute when a groggy voice in the room range out, “Veronica?”

Veronica came to a stop, her mind blanking out as she turned back around to see Heather Kennedy propped up on one elbow, rubbing at her eyes with her free hand. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” Veronica quickly apologized, her surprise taking her over. Heather yawned while laying her head back down on her pillow, “Where are you going?” 

“Oh! I’m not – no I – I have class I’m not like trying to just leave like the day after – that would be – “ Veronica cut herself off refusing to allow the babble to continue for another minute, “I have my creative writing class and I’m running super late.” Heather furrowed her brow and mumbled, “I didn’t mean it like that – I don’t think you’re that kind of person, Veronica – I trust you, you know?” Veronica sighed and reached for her keys settled on the floor next to Heather’s bed. She hated the leftover tendencies she kept from when she had been with JD. She was just on edge he – he always had to know where she was, what she was doing. Hell, if she had tried to leave without waking him up he probably would’ve freaked out on her and made it something about Veronica trying to ‘deceive him’ or something. She wasn’t prepared for the readied acceptance of another person. “Sorry – god – I need to stop saying – I just thought I would let you know so you’re not like ‘oh, where’s Veronica? I hope she’s not just trying to get rid of me or anything’ or whatever’.” Heather sat up, a frown on her face, “Veronica, you don’t have to keep saying you’re sorry - if you did anything that made me upset I’d just tell you – that’s what people do, right?” Heather stood up and made her way over to Veronica and offered a hand for the other girl to hold, “It’s communication and I think we can do that.” 

Veronica gingerly took Heather’s hand in her own and nodded, “Yeah, we can do that.”

Veronica feverishly made her way back to her dorm, carefully shutting the door behind her and began to undress with lightning speed. She was going to be late to her 9:00 if she didn’t haul ass and get into gear. Her half-naked form bent over picking up a nearby skirt and inspecting it to see if it was clean enough to wear. After a moment of trying to decide she said fuck it and put it on anyway. Another moment of feverish search went by for a shirt when she got the eerie feeling of being watched. 

Veronica turned around and found herself face-to-face with Heather Chandler. “Holy shit, do you mind?” Veronica yelped, slapping a hand over her chest to shield it from the other girl. The ghost let out a huff of laughter and crossed her arms, almost mirroring Veronica, “Don’t get your panties in a twist, Sawyer, it’s not like I haven’t seen a pair of tits before.” Veronica let out a disgusted grunt and spoke, “What do you want, Heather?” 

Heather scoffed, “I want you to help me – I mean you’ve been so busy with your girlfriend I feel like you’ve completely forgotten about me, Veronica.” The ghost held a light pout on its face, which made Veronica roll her eyes affectionately and protest, “I didn’t forget about you – hey have you been watching us?” Heather stiffened and took a step backward, a harsh look on her face, “I’m not a psychopath, Veronica.” She scowled for a moment before continuing, “I was just assuming if you weren’t here you were with her.” 

The twinge of hurt in Heather’s voice confused Veronica to no end. Was she – was she jealous? Of Kennedy? It wasn’t like they had been great friends before Heather had died – or while Heather was dead for that fact. Veronica’s eyebrows shot up as she was deep in thought about the matter, Heather was dead, it’s not like she was intentionally ignoring her or anything, it was just that Veronica was living and she kind of had to keep doing that – the whole living thing. If that meant she had to spend less time with Heather, then she’d spend less time with Heather. They sat in silence for a moment before Heather turned around and moved for the door, “You should get ready for class since you’re also letting her make you late for things now.” 

Veronica quickly pulled the shirt on over her head and made her way over to Heather, grabbing for her shoulder, “Wait, that’s not fair.” Heather allowed for her to be pulled around, attempting to keep the steely Demon-Queen persona up and gave Veronica an expectant look. The brunette hesitated before throwing her arms to her sides in defeat, “I – I’ll skip class okay? We can try to go figure out why you’re here – we can do a library search or, god, I don’t know Heather can’t you ask whoever it is keeping you here why you’re still here?” 

“Oh, yeah, let me just call them up on the landline, Veronica,” Heather quipped. Veronica gave her a look and Heather grumbled and continued, defeated, “You’re the only person I can talk to, okay? You’re all I’ve got.” Veronica swallowed hard, guilt trickling into her stomach and she mumbled a quick, “Sorry.” Heather pinched at the bridge of her nose and muttered, “Let’s just go to the library.” 

They made it to the library, the silence between them carrying an immense amount of tension. Veronica sat at one of the rather isolated study tables and craned her neck around to see if there was another person nearby at all. Citing the fact that the coast was clear she pulled a notebook out of her backpack, turned her attention to Heather, who was perched upon the table and spoke softly, “Where do you want to start?” 

Heather uncrossed her arms and buzzed her lips, offering a shrug. She knew she didn’t have to whisper, but couldn’t help herself as she matched Veronica’s tone, “Is there an ‘occult section’ or supernatural or something?” Veronica let out a small laugh and returned Heather’s shrug, “We can look.” Heather slid off of the table and adjusted the robe she was wearing and gave the order, “We’re splitting up.” Heather then walked off to one side of the infinite stacks of books in the library. Veronica, left in the dust, decided, well, she was going to have to go the other direction. 

She began to absentmindedly wander the aisles, catching glimpses and glances of titles – all sorts of fiction – The Hobbit, Neuromancer, pretty much every single Toni Morrison book – her thoughts were interrupted by Heather shouting from the other end of the library. “Veronica!” Heather called, poking her head out from a part of the stacks in an attempt to get her attention. Veronica peeked out, catching sight of the apparition and made her way over to her.

“What’d you find?” Veronica whispered, looking around hoping that no one else was in the vicinity. Heather pointed to a few books on the shelves, “I can’t pick anything up, obviously, but this one,” she waited for Veronica to grab the book and moved further down the stack and gestured to another set, “And maybe these? I don’t know – you’re the big Ivy-League Academic here,” Veronica laughed and pulled the books down shooting Heather an almost adoring look. The pair made their way back to the study-table and Veronica glanced at each of the books ’20 Bone-Chilling TRUE Ghost Stories’, ‘The Science Behind Ghosts’, ‘The Occult: A History’. Veronica let out a snort of laughter and spoke, “Really, Heather?”   
Heather quickly furrowed her brows and crossed her arms defensively, “I don’t seem to recall you finding anything helpful, Sawyer.”

Veronica sat down and began to flip through the books as Heather came to hover over her shoulder. Her hands rested on the back of the chair and she leaned forward, trying to read the pages of the book. Veronica found herself relaxing back into Heather as she brought the book closer to both of them so they each had a fair chance of reading it. Veronica finished the page and cast a side-glance at Heather to see if she had finished reading that page; Heather’s eyes were still thoroughly focused on the text below her, her lips lightly pursed and her brow furrowed, her mouth moved slightly with every couple sets of words, just sort of mumbling them under her breath. Veronica frowned slightly, the drip of blue drain cleaner down her chin being a constant reminder of two things: the first being that her life was far from normal and the second being that if she hadn’t met JD, Heather would be alive. Eventually, Heather caught up to the end of the page and realized Veronica had been staring at her. She turned her eyes to focus on Veronica’s and her voice came out much smaller than usual, “What?” 

It felt like all of the air was sucked out of the room and Veronica let out a choppy laugh while whispering, “I wish I could get rid of that.” Veronica’s hand quickly went up to Heather’s face, her thumb gently tracing over the blue stain on her chin. Heather delicately broke the eye contact, allowing her eyes to flicker down to Veronica’s hand. Heather’s voice came out in a crackle, matching the other girl’s whisper, “I’ve tried, it won’t come off.” Veronica frowned again, her own vision dipping down to the ground – before she could make it all the way down, she found her chin being lifted by a semi-translucent hand. They caught each other’s eye for a second too long. Veronica’s hand fell to her own lap and she moved to speak, trying to find something to say, her voice failing her, and her own mouth falling shut. “It’s okay,” Heather let out in a breathy chuckle. Her eyes dipped down to Veronica’s lips – she moved forward, her eyes sliding shut. Veronica closed her own eyes in anticipation – 

“Veronica?”

Veronica’s eyes flew open as she and Heather Chandler separated with definitive haste. Veronica disallowed herself from looking back at the ghost and instead turned her attention to the voice that had called out to her. She saw the form of Heather Kennedy. Veronica’s heart sank – had she really been about to ruin this good thing she had just started to get going. Heather Chandler was dead, Heather Chandler would always be dead, and she would continue to be dead. Veronica bit her lip, maybe everything was just a hallucination her brain had put together to cope with the guilt of Heather being dead. She swallowed hard, forcing the unfortunately confusing emotions down and instead put on a happy face, “Hey, Heather!” 

“Did you get out of class early?” Kennedy asked, taking a seat next to Veronica at the table. Veronica’s eyes lit up in recognition that she was supposed to be in class and she quickly covered for herself, “Oh, yeah, it turned out today was a research day – we have to choose a topic to cover so I’m – doing that.” Veronica shook her head, angry that she couldn’t come up with anything better than the words that had just disgracefully stumbled out of her mouth. 

Kennedy gave a smile and gestured toward the books on the table while she asked, “So, what are you doing yours on?” Veronica glanced down and continued her torrential downpour of word vomit, “Oh! The paranormal – ghost stuff – I just think that’s interesting – I mean you already know that because I’ve forced you to watch a ton of horror movies so – yeah.” Kennedy shot Veronica a look and let out a chuckle, placing a tender hand over one of Veronica’s on the table, “Are you okay? You’re kind of jumpy.”

Veronica sighed and cast a quick glance over to Heather Chandler who was aggressively averting her gaze. Veronica’s stomach bottomed out and she just shrugged and spoke, “I think I might be coming down with something, I feel kind of weird, I might just go back to my dorm and crash.” The lie wasn’t far from the truth. She felt like she was literally going to set on fire from how upset with herself she was. Heather Kennedy frowned, and said, “Can I do anything for you? I make a mean matzo ball soup, that’s what my mom usually does when I’m sick and I swear by it.” Veronica gave a lovesick smile, her eyes tired, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but I won’t say no.” Kennedy leaned an arm on the table and rose an eyebrow, “I’ll stop by your dorm later tonight to check on you?” 

“Fine, you win.” Veronica laughed and they both moved to stand. It was Kennedy’s turn to look around the library, hoping that no one was around. It took a mere moment, but once she felt it was safe enough she pressed a quick gentle kiss to Veronica’s lips. Veronica graciously accepted the kiss, smiling into it for a moment before separating and speaking, “I’ll see you later, okay?” 

Veronica turned to catch a glimpse of Heather Chandler who began to fade away. Veronica sighed; fuck she was really fucking everything up, wasn’t she? She ran a hand through her hair and went to check out the books that Chandler had chosen for them to look through. The entirety of the walk back to her dorm was filled with dread. Heather hated her now, like for sure. Kennedy on the other hand – she didn’t even know what was going on. How was she supposed to tell her….girlfriend? Oh, yeah I’m kind of haunted by the ghost of my ex-best friend who I kind of killed and she also apparently wants to kiss me? Yeah, that’d fly over super well. She’d think she was a psychopath. Or at the very least she had lost her mind.

Veronica opened the door to her dorm like she had done dozens of times before, she confirmed that per usual her roommate wasn’t there and closed the door behind herself, dropping her backpack to the floor. She laid down on her bed and pressed the palms of her hands to her eyes and released a deep shaky sigh. Veronica shifted catching the brooding visage of Heather Chandler. Veronica’s mouth went dry as she forced herself to speak, “Heather I-“ 

“Don’t. If you try to apologize to me I – no,” Heather spoke harshly. Her eyes narrowed but her posture said that she was feeling otherwise. Veronica reluctantly pulled herself out of bed, her heart sticking in her throat. “Well, then talk to me,” Veronica said dropping her arms to her sides in defeat. Heather closed her eyes and rolled her lips between her teeth and began, “There’s nothing to talk about, Veronica, let’s just figure out how to get me out of here so I can leave you and your pretty little girlfriend alone.” 

“Heather…” Veronica sighed, furrowing her brows trying to come up with something, anything she could say to comfort the visibly upset ghost in front of her. Heather opened her eyes, her lips pressed tightly in a thin line and she shook her head, “What? It’s not like you can make me alive again, Veronica. I’m dead.” She let out a strangled laugh, tilting her head back to try to keep the tears that were threatening to escape in, “I’m just always going to be some idiotic seventeen year old with a schoolgirl crush. You get to live and have a life and go to school and you’ll get a job and a house and grow old. I don’t get shit, Sawyer.” 

All Veronica could mumble was, “I thought you weren’t pissed at me…” Heather felt a tear slip down her cheek and she hurriedly brought a shaky hand up to wipe it away. “I’m not, but that doesn’t mean I’m not fucking jealous, Sawyer, do you know how hard it is to see everyone else leave you behind? No, you don’t because you get to have everything your little heart desires. You get Brown, you get friends, you get the girlfriend.” 

“Heather, that isn’t fair,” Veronica spoke, a newfound venom seeping into her speech. “I’m not doing any of this to spite you.” The frown on Heather’s face increased as she forced herself to look at another point in the room. A soft sniffling sound could be heard as she attempted to compose herself, to say something back to Veronica, she couldn’t let her have the last word. “Shut up,” Heather commanded, her voice coming out in a tremble, “Shut up.” The room literally shook with the words. Objects on shelves began to jostle and fall off; her bed began to jump up and down. Veronica was, horrified. She needed to stop Heather from being upset before it, in turn, killed her as well.

Veronica took a sharp inhale and took a risk and pulled Heather into a hug. Heather melted into it, allowing the pair to sink to the ground as her voice began to crackle with more and more tears, “shut up, shut up, shut up.” Books flew across the room, sheets fell atop the pair, papers began to flutter around the room, and the lights began to flicker.

All Veronica could do was hold her closer, her own anxiety eating her alive. Heather shook as she sobbed a final ‘shut up’ coming out in a whisper before she fully dissolved into tears. Veronica had never seen Heather look so frail or vulnerable. And it broke her heart. Veronica closed her eyes and braced herself for the next stupid fucking thing she was forcing herself to do. 

She grabbed Heather’s face and she kissed her. The lights burst off with a pop. Their lips roughly collided, it was nothing like how she had imagined it was going to be, Heather was extremely cold, she could feel the tears from the other girl’s face slide onto her own. The rest of the jostling in the room came to an abrupt halt as Veronica registered Heather beginning to kiss her back. They only kissed for another moment, gripping at each other before Heather pulled back. 

Her eyes were bright red and a slight frown still held on her face. She glanced over at Veronica sniffling for another moment before she closed her eyes and shook her head, “Sorry.” Veronica sighed wetting her lips and echoed Heather, “I’m sorry.” Heather pulled herself away from Veronica and spoke, “I’m going to go.” 

“Heather wait –“ Veronica pleaded, but it was too late. Heather had disappeared, and there was nothing she could do.

Shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all i am so sorry for the angst, I promise it'll get better.  
but also please leave feedback I thrive off of that stuff it really makes the whole writing process go faster to know what y'all like and don't like!


	4. Scary Stories to Tell in The Dorm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heather Chandler doesn't pride herself in her temper. Or her ability to hold a grudge. Or her neverending jealousy. Okay, so she has a lot of flaws, but they're HER flaws.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh hello it is me after a literal month - whoops sorry fam
> 
> anywayyyyy  
I hope you enjoy this chapter as it's kind of a deep-dive into our babe, Heather Chandler, and getting to know 'who' she is in this universe with a little more clarity. I also just like........luv her 
> 
> twitter: @laurahoIIis  
Tumblr: harlcyquinzcl.tumblr.com

Heather Chandler didn’t like to admit she had a jealous streak. She knew it could be something that was glaringly obvious if anyone got to know her. Maybe that was why she refused to allow anyone to get too close. Well, that and the glaring insecurities she attempted to overpower with a coarse personality and bright red lipstick. If she embodied power and sex no one would fuck with her. At least, that’s what Heather had told herself.

Heather had always known she had liked girls; Even if it was subconscious, she avoided having friends who were boys as a child, with her other two Heather cohorts she had joked that they were “all probably going to get married one day since we can’t live without each other”, and she had just never felt _anything _toward boys. While every teen drama was focused on the guy always getting the girl or the bad boy running away with the prissy co-ed, Heather found her mind wandering different places. The first true realization that she might be a lesbian hit her hard – it was a book. For her Freshman Lit class they had an assignment of choosing a book from the post-war era of the late 1940s to the 1950s. She had spent hours in the library, desperately trying to find something that wasn’t deeply depressing fiction following the lives of those who lived the Holocaust or had served in the war. She wanted something light and frothy.

Heather ran across a book that looked rather yellowed and aged with a peculiar title _The Price of Salt. _Upon pulling the book out of the shelf and into her hands her heart dropped. “The novel of a love society forbids,” The ginger had mumbled as she read off the cover. Carefully she traced the figures of two women on the book – was this mean to be the ‘forbidden love’? Regardless, Heather did what any nervous 14-year-old would do – she shoved the book into her backpack to smuggle it out of the library.

With the project forgotten and her mind was abuzz with the _need _to read the book but wanting to wait until she could hide away at her house under the safety of nighttime to devour the novel, she struggled through the day. Once she got home, she waited until it was impossibly late to crack the book open. Her first read was a rollercoaster of emotion – these two women were obviously very in love – it wasn’t how she had heard about lesbians before – they weren’t just doing it so men would look at them – they were in love. Heather found herself with her covers pulled over her head; a small flashlight illuminating the book and a tear beginning to slip down her cheek as she finished the last page of the book. Attempting to keep her composure she quickly attempted to wipe away the offending emotion but found more and more tears bubbling their way to the surface. She had never felt such an intense version of relief in her entire life. She could just be like those women. She could just _love _other girls and it didn’t have to be fake or to impress guys. She could feel normal about it.

Well, okay, _semi-_normal about it; Heather was still astonishingly aware that the world didn’t like gay people in the least. They sort of _were _in the midst of a crisis that tended to kill primarily gay people. It didn’t deter Heather though – she wanted to experiment she was desperate to find other people that were like her. The first girl Heather made-out with was a girl that she met a football game. She was from the rivaling school but Heather couldn’t take her eyes off of her – long brown bouncy hair, a smile that felt infectious, and – well luckily for Heather the girl kept exchanging glances her way as well.

Eventually, Heather gathered the courage to introduce herself to the girl, her cheeks slightly tinted pink, but a generous smile splattered across her face, “If we’re going to keep looking at each other we might as well introduce ourselves – I’m Heather.”

The other girl returned a bright grin and replied, “Kate.” They began to talk, the football game forgotten. Kate asked Heather if she had been there with anyone to which Heather coolly lied with a ‘no’. Kate took Heather’s hand in her own and began to lead her away from the game, which Heather had no complaints about. Heather was nervous – but it was more ‘giddy’ than anything else – she knew when people walked away during games it was usually to either fuck or get a drink. While she wasn’t holding out for the first part she was at least hoping for something in that realm and she allowed herself to be blindly lead to underneath the bleachers.

The first kiss was tentative – as if both girls were trying to triple check that the other was actually interested in the other. Heather was, in theory knowledgeable about kissing – she had made-out with tons of guys – but never someone she was _actually _attracted to so she was incredibly nervous. She let out a small laugh attempting to ease her nerves and pulled Kate in for another kiss.

So, a longstanding tradition was born – find a gay girl at every single football game – it wasn’t hard and she knew that if anything went awry she could weasel her way out of it. It was her junior year and Heather had managed to sneak another girl out to her car – the girls at the games never meant anything to her – it was more to keep her from losing her fucking mind during the rest of the year – something to remind her that other people were like her. Plus, okay, she was horny like every other teenager she had ever met. So, there she found herself pinned under a girl she barely knew when she heard a knock on her window. Heather froze and she held a hand to the shoulder on the girl above her as if signaling for her to stop. _Shit, shit, shit, shit. _

She had been caught, which wasn’t something she had planned on happening. Sucking in a deep sigh, Heather sat herself up and found herself face to face with Heather McNamara, her best friend. _Fuuuuuuuuuck. _Heather pinched the bridge of her nose and turned to face the girl she had been kissing mere moments ago and spoke, “You should go back to the game.” The girl began to protest and Heather quickly spoke again, “No, seriously, get out.”

She hesitated for a moment before murmuring a goodbye to Heather and leaving the car. Chandler turned her attention back to Mac and crawled up to the front of her car and unlocked the passenger seat, indicating for the Heather to come sit. Mac quickly opened the door and sat down next to Chandler. “Heather…” Mac began, her voice meek, even for her.

Chandler was chewing on her lip, her eyes facing forward, her hands clasped into a death-grip on her lap. “What did you see?” Chandler asked, trying to keep a steady tone instead of giving away the fact that she was scared out of her goddamn mind.

“Not much,” Mac began, answering truthfully, “I mean she was on top of you and you were…kissing.” The smaller Heather cast a glance over to Chandler who was now almost vibrating with anxiety and continued, “Do you…are you – you know – like gay?”

Chandler considered lying for a moment – trying to find a way to spin it so she wasn’t gay or maybe she was drunk – no she clearly wasn’t. She just had to tell Heather the truth. She let out an aggravated sigh and closed her eyes and answered, “Yes.”

Mac nodded and mumbled under her breath, “Okay, okay.” The pair sat in silence for a few minutes Chandler refusing to say another word on the matter and Mac too uncomfortable to ask anything else. Heather Chandler finally found enough words to speak and turned to face the smaller girl, “I’m going home – do you and Heather still need a ride?”

Mac quickly nodded and spoke, “Um, yeah – let me go get her.”

Chandler waited until Mac was making her way back into the stadium to burst into tears. _Fuck_, this wasn’t fair. She had probably just ruined her life for the foreseeable future and there was nothing she could do about it. Heather looked up from the steering wheel to see a pair of yellow and green making their way to her car and she began to compose herself. She aggressively wiped at her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. For someone who attempted to be strong every waking second of her life, Heather was coming to the _heavy _realization that she was a crybaby. She was already sick of it.

The other two girls climbed into Chandler’s car a mere moment later. The air was uneasy between the trio as everyone settled into the car. Duke was the first to break the silence, “Heather said you were being weird – are you –“

She was quickly interrupted by Chandler half-heartedly snapping at her, “Shut – I don’t want to talk about it.” Chandler started the car as they all fell back into an uncomfortable silence. She pulled onto the main stretch of road and back toward Duke’s house, attempting to get rid of her first so she at least had the chance to threaten Mac into not telling anyone.

“You should tell her,” Mac spoke her voice wavering even with the short sentence. Chandler’s eyebrows shot up as she cast a quick glance over to Mac. _Was she fucking insane? _Tell Duke, seriously?

“This isn’t happening,” Heather Chandler barked out with a clipped laugh and shook her head.

“Tell me what?” Duke asked, furrowing her brows, “Heather, seriously, you’re acting like a freak. What’s happening?”

Heather slammed on the breaks as they pulled up to Duke’s driveway and she began to swear, “Fuck, fine!” She threw her hands up in defeat but quickly moved them back to the steering wheel, which she gripped all too tightly. She closed her eyes and released a deep sigh before opening them again and turning to face the other two Heathers. “I’m a lesbian.” She declared, attempting to keep her voice steely and uncaring.

“Obviously,” Duke stated, raising an eyebrow. Chandler was flabbergasted and she quickly narrowed her brows at the other Heather. What the fuck did she mean ‘obviously’?

“What?” Chandler spoke her tone verging on incredulous.

“Heather, we have been friends since we were ten, I’m not that much of a pillowcase, I have eyes,” Duke answered with a shrug. “Plus, you’ve been disappearing at football games, with a girl, for the past three years. Kind of reeks of ‘gay’.”

Chandler sighed and ran a hand over her face trying to keep herself from exploding at the other girl, “Why didn’t you just tell me you knew?”

“Listen, you can think I’m a bitch all you want, but I’m not going to get up your ass because you like girls – I like Kurt and you _know_ he’s a dumbass but you haven’t ever given me shit for it.” Duke countered, her voice still relatively calm.

Chandler turned her attention toward Mac, wrapping her own arms around herself almost as a defense mechanism. “Did you know?” Chandler asked, her voice growing more nervous than she would’ve liked.

“No!” Mac quickly denied, wringing her hands together. “Okay, well, I might’ve thought you were but I didn’t know for sure – and – and I thought if I asked you and you _weren’t _you would’ve freaked out and thought I was hitting on you.” Mac quickly looked away from Chandler, not wanting to face whatever wrath that was beginning to bubble from the other girl.

“Okay.”

The other two Heathers seemed…surprised. All _the _Heather Chandler had to say was a simple ‘okay’. That was…unlike her. If anything it felt like an admission of defeat or weakness, which was a rare sight from their leader. “Just…don’t tell anyone.” Chandler spoke, her voice growing soft. “Please.” She quickly added as she turned her attention back toward the steering wheel.

From that point on, the Heathers kept a solemn oath to keep Chandler’s secret. That didn’t mean that they hadn’t poked fun at her for every once in a while. For example, her glaringly obvious crush on Veronica Sawyer. The moment she had let the other girl into their clique, Duke and Mac knew _exactly _what Heather was up to. She was just so head over heels for the girl in such an obnoxious way – she always talked about Veronica, she always wanted to be around Veronica – Heather had it bad.

Fortunately for Chandler, when Veronica started flirting with JD, Duke and Mac were her shoulders to lean on. Well, more like continually bitch to. She was so jealous of JD. She wanted to kill him – she probably could’ve if she had really put her mind to it. What was it that Veronica saw in JD that she didn’t see in her? _Probably a penis_, Heather had mused.

The night she and Veronica had fought at the party had probably been the worst night she had ever been through. She had to pretend she was pissed off at Veronica rather than take care of her and get her some water like she had probably needed. She had been way too drunk to drive so it wasn’t like she could take Veronica home, but it probably would’ve saved her life if she had. Instead, she screamed at Veronica calling her a freak and basically publically committing her execution just to save her own ass.

Heather drank more that night, trying to ignore the worrying glances she was receiving from Duke and Mac and then finally walked her plastered ass home a mere 30 minutes after Veronica had left. The moment she got home she stumbled her way to the bathroom and spent the night throwing up; half out of the sheer volume of alcohol she had consumed and half out of the guilt for treating Veronica the way she had. She adored her, she didn’t want to lose her like that but it felt like Veronica had made her mind up that night about who she wanted to be. Maybe she’d call her up and she’d apologize to her – that’s what…friends did, right? Ugh. She couldn’t do that she’d know something was up.

Heather would just talk to her at school the next day. Just say it was something to freak her out – or she was drunk and didn’t really mean it. She woke up to the sound of someone knocking on her door and mumbled a soft, “Come in.” Her face softened as she caught a glance of Veronica stepping into her room.

Veronica looked anxious and Heather’s face dropped as Veronica began to speak, “Heather, I’m here to apologize.” Another figure stepped into the room behind Veronica – JD. Heather was suddenly incensed by the fact that JD was there and JD was _definitely _with Veronica she quickly rebuilt her walls, “Well, I hope you brought knee-pads, bitch.” Of course that played out well – Heather turning into a raging fucking bitch to the only person in the world she had ever been sure she had liked and then immediately dying afterward – way to go jealousy. Chandler was 0-2 that night.

So, there Heather found herself. She had again ruined any chances of Veronica helping her move onto whatever stupid afterlife she was supposed to, just because she had to be a little bitch about her stupid crush on her. It wasn’t like they could ever have a relationship anyway, what with the whole ‘being dead’ thing; Heather was just being selfish. So, she had avoided Veronica for weeks – to be fair she was still kind of hanging out in her dorm all the time, but she wasn’t making it easy for Veronica to see her – it wasn’t like Veronica was ever in her dorm anyway. She was always with that Heather Kennedy girl.

Heather was jealous but it gave her an idea: she was going to haunt the ever-loving hell out of Heather Kennedy. Veronica was headed off to Kennedy’s for a date so Heather did what any sane ghost would do – she followed her to the dorm. It was hell to keep out of sight but managed to slide through the wall and, funnily enough, into Kennedy’s closet. Veronica stayed there for hours, which made Chandler want to die. She was so bored! It wasn’t like sitting in a close was exactly her idea of fun. Plus, Heather was almost certain she could hear them making out. Gross.

She had to be patient though. Eventually Veronica mumbled something about having to go work on homework and that she’d see Kennedy tomorrow and left. Chandler waited for the door to click shut before she emerged from the closet.

Time to make this girl’s life a living hell. Okay, so she knew she had super scary ghost powers – it was just a matter of figuring out how to use them. The only other time she had been really able to directly affect anything was when she was having a meltdown in Veronica’s arms. So she figured she just had to get really pissed off - or really sad. She slunk further into the room to take in Heather Kennedy fully.

Kennedy was lounged in her bed, a tiny smile on her face, nose deep in some class reading, and a pencil tucked behind her ear. Chandler could tell why Veronica liked Kennedy; it was easy. She was cute and delicate and something easy; not anything super emotionally charged or with any heavy expectations. Chandler ground her teeth together and began to focus on a bookshelf adjacent to Kennedy’s bed. She just wanted one book to fall – or move – or even like wiggle for just a second.

Chandler focused all of her rage toward the bookshelf and what followed scared the shit out of her. One of the rungs of the shelf had completely cracked, bringing the entirety of its contents falling onto the floor. Kennedy shot up from her bed, a surprised look on her face as she looked over to the bookshelf.

“Shit,” Kennedy spoke softly as she began to collect her books from the ground and shove them off to the side. “That’s what you get for getting this at a yard sale, Heather,” The living girl began to chastise herself as she assessed the damage.

Chandler on the other hand was _thrilled._ She glanced down at her hands and let out a laugh, “Oh, fuck yeah.” She looked over to the desk shoved in the corner of the room and brought all her focus to the lamp sitting on it, gesturing for it to fly off the desk with a simple flick of her wrist. The small lamp went tumbling off of the desk, flying toward the door with a solid thunk. 

Kennedy quickly turned around and looked around the room before her eyes finally landed on her lamp, which she went over to pick up, “Jesus.”

Chandler could tell Kennedy was beginning to get nervous and she wanted to make it worse. Was it a little sadistic? Yes. Did Chandler believe that it was some cosmic karma she had power over? Absolutely. She did feel a little dirty, however, she didn't want to kill the girl - just give her a fright. Chandler quickly shoved the guilt back inside and continued on with her rampage. Quickly, she pointed a finger up toward the fluorescent light that hung on the ceiling and the bulb popped. Kennedy swore and began to scurry back over to her desk to plug the lamp back in. The light came on with a click, dimly illuminating the room when a knock came from the door.

Chandler, if she could have probably would’ve paled in an instant. She quickly made her way back to the closet she had initially been hiding in as Kennedy ran to answer the door. Kennedy looked relieved upon seeing who was on the other side and sighed. “Hey I forgot my – whoa – are you okay?” Veronica’s voice sounded out from the other side of the door as she stepped in and pulled Kennedy in for a hug. Kennedy melted into the hug and gave a simple nod, just relieved to have her girlfriend there and not some scary stranger on the other side of the door.

“My bookshelf broke and my lamp fell off my desk and then the blub burnt out on the overhead and – “ Kennedy sighed cutting herself off, “It’s just spooky, you know?” Veronica’s face fell for a moment, holding Kennedy closer, a hard look coming over her face. Chandler swore under her breath and slapped a hand to her forehead. _Of course _Veronica would know who was doing this. It wasn’t like it’d be subtle since she had kind of gone balls to the wall.

“Did you see anything?” Veronica asked pulling back from Kennedy and pushing the other girl’s hair out of her face.

Kennedy shook her head emphatically and brows furrowing in confusion, “What d’you mean?”

Veronica sighed and shrugged; trying to play it off like it wasn’t a big deal. “I don’t know – just like something to explain it all?” The brunette offered, her voice dropping down to a softer tone.

“No?”

Veronica gave a quick forced smile and placed a careful kiss on her girlfriend’s lips. “Well, I’m sure it’ll be fine – maybe the light going out is just the universe telling you to go to bed,” Veronica joked giving another meek smile to Kennedy.

Kennedy sighed and pulled back fully. She ran her hands through her hair and then dropped them limply to her sides before slumping down slightly, “I should probably listen then, huh?”

Veronica pulled Kennedy in for a kiss and nodded. Veronica took a step into the room and grabbed her keys and held them up sheepishly, “I, uh, forgot these – sorry – I’ll let you go to bed, have a good night, okay?”

Kennedy gave a sappy grin as she pulled away, “Goodnight, Ronnie.” Veronica shut the door behind her and Kennedy turned the light off and crawled into bed.

Heather Chandler was pissed but phased her way out of the closet. _Ronnie? _Pet names now and one that _she, _herself had used for Veronica. Seriously? Chandler made her way back to Veronica’s dorm and lounged on her bed. Almost impatiently waiting for the chewing out she was sure to receive from the Veronica the moment she returned. Heather didn’t mean to be as jealous as she was – she just couldn’t help it. It made her sick to her stomach when she just couldn’t succeed – thanks, mom and dad.

It was a mere ten seconds later when Veronica entered slamming the door behind her. “What the fuck was that?” Veronica hissed at the ghost laying on her bed.

Heather pulled herself up into a sitting position and began to feign ignorance, “Was what?”

Veronica stalked her way over to her bed and crossed her arms staring her down, “You were totally fucking with Heather.” Chandler began to open her mouth and then was quickly interrupted by Veronica swearing at her and lightly pushing against her shoulders, “You were haunting her! Come _on, _stuff just randomly happening – lights going off? You’re not fooling me.” Veronica let out an enraged groan and pressed her hands to her temples before dropping them to her sides in balled-up fists, “I don’t see you for weeks, and then you come back and start to do this shit? Real classy, Heather.”

Heather furrowed her brows and stood up pushing Veronica back, “Oh, yeah, what are you going to do _Ronnie_, kiss me to get me to shut up again?”

“Oh, fuck you,” Veronica spat at the other girl and she took a step back for a moment.

A beat.

Then they came crashing together. Neither of them was sure who kissed who first but there they were; Veronica’s hands were tangled into Heather’s hair and Heather was greedily gripping at Veronica’s shirt. They breathed into each other for a moment separating for a chance at another breath and then diving back into a softer kiss. Heather smoothed her hands along Veronica’s shoulders and gently pushed back against them, less aggressive this time, more just like she was trying to get Veronica to stop.

They began to stare at each other; the air was incredibly heavy with the weight of what had just happened to them. Veronica let out a shaky sigh and opened her mouth to speak, “This needs to stop.”

Heather frowned and dropped her eyes to the side, desperately not wanting to allow herself to get pissed off again. “You first, Sawyer,” Heather argued, still averting her gaze as she took a step away from Veronica. She took a sharp breath in moved past Veronica a small laugh getting caught in the back of her throat, “I can’t stand you, you know that?”

Veronica almost at her own loss for words returned the laugh and replied, “I know.” And like that, Veronica was left alone in her room. Again. She needed to get rid of Heather or this thing was going to ruin her life.


	5. The Mimic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :^) this one is a surprise but read the A/N at the beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> either you get two updates two days in a row or you have to wait a month and IM SO SORRY LMAO  
anyway:
> 
> I decided to try something fun and new with this fic  
I MADE A PLAYLIST FOR THIS CHAPTER!!  
Here's a link to it: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6oc6VQTQK68lKepYJlc6vy?si=S83RG-owRPShADuaD0dDqA  
it's not a lot of songs but it should get you through this chapter! It's also important that you listen to it in order. The Girl in Red song should DEF be last.
> 
> also peep the Carmilla reference you're welcome gays
> 
> and as always  
twitter: @laurahoIIis  
tumblr: harlcyquinzcl.tumblr.com

Heather Chandler refused to give up – there were few things on this Earth that fueled Heather other than spite. She refused to leave Heather Kennedy alone; what had started as small innocent tests of her power had turned into more grandiose displays. Floating a few books over her while she woke up just to have them drop and _almost _hit her – it made Chandler laugh every time. Oh, or the time she had tripped her, which wasn’t exactly a huge display of her ghostly prowess but was just enough to amuse Chandler, like she said, it wasn’t about hurting Kennedy, it was about inconveniencing her as much as possible. It was all to scare her – and yeah okay she felt like a huge asshole about it, but it wasn’t like _she _was dating her. Veronica was so it wasn’t Heather’s responsibility to take care of Kennedy.

It had been a little under a week since she and Veronica had…slipped and Chandler found herself laying on Heather Kennedy’s bed, waiting for her to return from class. In her time experimenting with being able to move things, she found that she was also able to just pick things up. Being able to carry things was an absolute game-changer for Chandler; well, she mostly was just happy she could use the remote to Kennedy’s TV. It was weird being able to catch up with what was going on with the world – not much had changed but little things here and there surprised her. It was only coming up on a year from when she had died but it was interesting to see how fashion and art had changed – hell even new TV shows impressed the ghost.

Heather took a moment when it hit her. God. She had almost been dead for a year. Heather pulled herself up from the pillow she was laying on and looked down at her hands turning them over in front of her as she began to examine them. She wasn’t fully translucent, but she could definitely see through the other side and it was as if everything on her was shaded in blue – if she looked in the mirror she could still see that her hair was red and her skin was…okay kind of pale pink, but pink – but it was like a haze fell over her. Heather stepped over to the mirror hanging on the back of the door and studied her appearance further, a small frown hanging across her face. What she would’ve given to be able to find something else to change into; there was exactly a ghost mall anywhere around there so she was stuck in that same stupid robe that she had died in.

Heather pulled the low-hanging scrunchie out of her hair and pulled it onto her wrist. She tousled her hair, in an attempt to feel _somewhat _better about her appearance, and then she separated two pieces of hair from both sides and pulled it back with the scrunchie – there – she was kind of normal. A frown crossed her lips – she still looked dead. One of Chandler’s hands came up to her face and she began to futilely attempt to wipe away the delightful blood/drain-cleaner combination from her chin. The stain wouldn’t budge – like it was a part of her now and there was just _nothing _she could do about it.

Chandler’s thoughts were interrupted by the door swinging open and phasing through her. _Rude much? _The door quickly closed again to reveal Heather Kennedy, who was seemingly stressed about some arbitrary class. Kennedy grabbed the remote to the TV and shut it off while muttering, “Did I really leave that on?”

Chandler saw it as an opening to bother her again so she waltzed over to the TV and pressed the power button, buzzing it to life. Kennedy scowled at the remote, assuming she had accidentally hit the power button twice or something and turned it off again. Chandler let out a snicker and quickly pressed the power button the TV again and Kennedy let out a groan and threw the remote down on her bed, “Fine, whatever, guess I’m watching TV.” Kennedy deposited her backpack on the ground next to her bed and laid down on the bed with her head turned to the side to focus on the TV.

Chandler took the silence for what it was – hey at least she was able to tune back into the show she was watching. No complaints there. It wasn’t a _great _show but it was entertaining enough – some mediocre spin of _Ferris Bueller_. It did garner a couple laughs from both sides of the room when a knock came to the door. Chandler sighed rather angrily, she didn’t want to deal with Veronica at all that day, but of course she was coming over.

Heather quickly moved to phase through the bed to hide under it just so she could stay out of the line of fire when she found herself stuck on the bed. It was like she had just fallen back onto it with a great force. A moment passed of confusion but she sat herself up again and looked around the room. Kennedy was gone – okay weird what the fuck people don’t just disappear. Upon hearing the knock at the door again she glanced over to the mirror on the back of the door. _Oh shit. _

Chandler found herself face to face with – well Kennedy. Heather was panicking – she was absolutely piloting a body that was not her own and not on purpose. Heather didn’t have a lot of boundaries, but she considered possession to kind of be crossing the line there and she began to attempt to will herself out of the body. Heather felt like she was going to throw up – she just wanted to bug Kennedy a little bit, not steal her _life_.

Another knock rang against the door and Heather quickly blurted out, “One minute.” Okay, okay, okay she was going to have to play this _so _cool. This was Veronica and she was possessing her girlfriend. Oh, _fuck. _Heather took a deep breath to prepare herself and opened the door to see Veronica.

“Hey!” Veronica greeted, a giant smile on her face as she moved into the room and set her own bag down by the door. Heather found herself half-frozen by the door, her brain now trying to figure out how to fully pilot a body again amidst the sheer panic of the current situation she found herself in. Veronica turned her head back toward Heather and furrowed her brows. “You okay there?” Veronica asked her voice light and joking.

Heather snapped back to the reality of the situation and that she was going to have to act her way through it. Heather turned toward Veronica and let out a breathy laugh and spoke, “Yeah, I’m okay – why?” Heather was uncomfortable with the voice that was leaving her mouth. It wasn’t her own – so strange and so unfamiliar. She shifted uncomfortably on the feet she was now borrowing but offered a small shrug.

Veronica closed the distance between the two, taking hold of Heather’s hands and giving them a gentle squeeze as she answered, “I mean, you’ve talked about seeing all that weird stuff happen and I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

A light went off in Heather’s head and she took it as an absolute opportunity to fuck with Veronica. Now _this, _this was her ability to have karma repay her what she was due. Heather feigned a frown and pulled Veronica in for a hug, tucking her head into her shoulder. “Okay – promise not to laugh though.”

Veronica sank into the hug, protectively wrapping her arms around what she assumed was her girlfriend. “I won’t laugh at you, I love you,” Veronica quickly replied as she attempted to assuage the smaller girl.

Heather stifled the hurt and anger she had for Veronica being in love with this girl and pulled back to look at Veronica, her own romantic feelings bubbling to the surface. “I love you too,” She replied, the voice coming out of her sounding somehow ever smaller. Heather quickly cleared her vessel’s throat and averted her gaze, trying to get back on track with her plan of making Veronica squirm, “I think I might’ve seen a ghost.”

Veronica’s face fell in record time and she went pale. A second passed by and Heather was lavishing in every uncomfortable reaction Veronica was having. “What – I mean what _did _you see?” Veronica asked, her eyes fixed on Heather as if she was trying to figure out how to repair the entire situation.

Heather sat down on the bed and offered another feeble shrug, “It was a girl – around our age and she had red hair and –“ Heather traced the familiar space where she usually held the spill of drain cleaner on her chin and continued, “Blue stuff all over her chin?”

Veronica’s blood had run cold as she sat down next to Heather on the bed. Heather turned her head to glance over at Veronica and took the opportunity to capture her hand in her own. Heather gently ran her thumb over Veronica’s hand just taking advantage of the perks she had in the body she was piloting. “Did she do anything to you or – or did she say anything?” Veronica asked turning her gaze toward Heather.

Heather shook her head and then let out a small hum before deciding how to word the next bit of her tall-tale, “She just looked sad – I guess that isn’t the right word – almost like she was heartbroken or something?” Heather let out a small laugh and shrugged, “I didn’t see much of her it was just down the hall but she just kind of disappeared after I asked if she was okay.”

Heather had to hold in a snicker as Veronica’s brows shot up and she let out a heavy sigh. “That’s…super weird,” The brunette mumbled attempting to hide the fact that she damn-well knew it could be Heather Chandler in this story. Then, as if an idea came to her head she stood suddenly and held out a hand to Heather and offered a sheepish smile, “Um, how about we go somewhere that isn’t potentially haunted?”

Heather allowed herself to be pulled to her – well ‘her’ feet and raised a brow, “Like?” She kept ahold of Veronica’s hand, bringing it down to their sides to rest between them. There were _definite _perks of being an accidental body snatcher. If it meant that she got to have some time pretending she actually got to be alive and be with the person she loved then so be it.

Heather’s face went pink at the realization of the word love but Veronica, who had been deep in thought about where they should go and finally replied, “Liiiike, we go get coffee and then we sneak onto the roof of the Lustig Theatre Building and like stargaze or something?”

Veronica looked hopeful and it kind of made Heather’s heart melt. I mean, come on it was adorable and Heather just couldn’t say no to her – not when she was looking at her like that. “Sure,” She spoke quietly and then look around the room for the bag she had seen Kennedy drop when she entered. Heather grabbed off the ground next to the bed and began to dig through it, looking for Kennedy’s wallet only to be surprised by Veronica lacing her arms around her waist. Heather’s heart stopped as she leaned back against Veronica and let out a laugh, “What? I’m looking for h-my wallet.”

“Let me pay, it was my idea to go out so I’m not going to make you get your own drink, that’d be super shitty,” Veronica said beginning press several kisses along one of Heather’s cheeks and her neck.

Heather audibly swallowed, allowing her eyes to close for a minute while she mumbled out, “Uh, okay, sure – I can grab a blanket for the roof?”

Veronica pulled back from Heather and allowed her to fold up the blanket that was sitting on the end of the bed. Veronica then pulled her in for a quick kiss and then pulled back grinning a few mere inches from the other girl's face and spoke, “Race you.” Then Veronica took off out of the dorm room, leaving behind a doe-eyed Heather Chandler who took a solid moment to register Veronica had started to run. Then she took off after her with a laugh.

They had gotten their coffee – Veronica electing to buy whatever the hell Kennedy’s ‘usual’ drink was, which, luckily for Heather cappuccinos were _also _her favorite. She might have not liked the girl all that much, but she had to admit Kennedy had good taste. The had snuck their way to the top floor of the Lustig Building, Heather holding bother of their drinks, with the blanket tucked under her arm as Veronica fiddled with the door. Finally after one more fateful tug Veronica got it open and took her drink back from Heather and gestured for her to go first as she held it open, “I’m still a firm believer in ladies first.”

Heather groaned and rolled her eyes good-naturedly but stepped through the door and looked for a suitable spot on the roof, “Hey, Ronnie, what about there?” Heather asked nodding her head toward a corner of the roof where the building overlooked the rest of the campus.

Veronica walked over to the spot Heather had indicated and grinned as she gazed out to the rest of the campus. She set her drink down and took the blanket from Heather, “Sorry – I just –“

Heather cut her off, setting her own drink down on the ground next to her, “I can help you, you know? I’m not exactly fragile, Sawyer.” Her face paled for a second when the realization came to her that she had sounded just _too _much like herself at that moment. “Please?” Heather spoke again, hoping to breeze past the uncomfortable moment she had put herself in.

“Damn, the last name?” Veronica began to joke but noted the apprehension sitting on the other girl’s face and began to babble an explanation, “I just like to be chivalrous, is that crime?” She began to pull her end of the blanket away from Heather so they could start setting it up. They parachuted the blanket into the air and then settled it stretched out onto the ground.

Heather rolled her eyes as the blanket settled and nodded, “As much as I adore having a knight is shining polyester, it’s not fair to make you do everything all the time.” Heather settled down onto the blanket and began to observe the body she had taken over; Kennedy was a little shorter than she was, there were the obvious things that were different as well – slightly tanner and the blonde hair were extremely unusual to her, but she made do. She hated to admit that she was just kind of happy to be able to live again – even if it was an accident. A small frown crossed her face as she struggled with the thought of figuring out how to get out of Kennedy’s body.

Veronica sat next to her and took a small sip from her latte before speaking, “So, do you like the view?” Heather snapped out of her trance of self-loathing and tuned her attention back over to Veronica.

A love-struck smile perked up on Heather’s face and she began to speak, “Well, I could describe it for you.”

Veronica raised a brow almost confused about what Heather wanted to explain to her but she offered a shrug and a tiny smile. “Describe away.” Heather decided to be bold and took Veronica’s coffee out of her hand and set it on the ground next to them. She placed herself into Veronica’s lap and laced her arms around her neck and began to look over the other girl’s appearance in earnest.

“Well, I see this girl – and I like her a whole lot – she has these big brown eyes,” Heather began as she cocked her head to the side to study more about Veronica. A giant smile quirked up on Veronica’s face and Heather continued as she began to mirror the grin, “And god, when she smiles it’s like the whole world stops spinning for a second – the best is when it’s directed toward you.” She sighed and pressed a quick kiss to Veronica’s lips. “Another thing is I know that she’s a good kisser and she has all this crazy curly hair that I just want to play with for hours and I don’t know – it’s a view I could look at forever.” Heather’s heart ached as she was finally able to express what she loved about Veronica. It was everything; from the way her nose crinkled up when she found something funny, to the big dorky chuckle she let out every single timed she laughed. Heather was smitten and she had been holding it in for longer than she had cared to admit. Too bad it wasn’t from _her._ At least in Veronica’s eyes.

“I love you,” Veronica mumbled, her eyes quickly scanning the blonde over and then she grabbed her hips and pulled her into an almost smoldering kiss. Heather all but melted into Veronica. It wasn’t like the other times they had kissed; urgent and aggressive. Heather’s heart skipped in her chest and she leaned further into it, her breath hitching ever so slightly in her throat.

Maybe this is what love felt like, she mused as she wrapped her arms tighter around Veronica. Her heart hurt but it was the best thing she had ever felt in her life; it was a catharsis from the usual pain and misery she found herself dealing with. She pulled back from Veronica just to look at her. God, she would’ve given anything just to look at her all day like that. “I love you too,” Heather managed out. Her voice was almost hoarse and coming out a lot weaker than she would’ve enjoyed, but she meant it. Every molecule of her body was bursting at the seams with the _necessity _of declaring her love for Veronica Sawyer.

“Are you okay?” Came Veronica’s voice, it didn’t tremble and it didn’t sound afraid, just genuine wonder. Before Heather knew what was going on one of Veronica’s hands came up from her waist to her cheek. Veronica’s thumb swept across just below one of her eyes, collecting a few teardrops with it.

Heather hadn’t even realized she had been crying and immediately froze up in her embarrassment. “I’m okay – I guess I just got worked up or whatever – I’m happy, I promise I am _very _happy.” Heather shook her head and pressed her forehead to Veronica’s. She didn’t want to ruin the moment or make it weird. God, she had never had a relationship with a girl before, sure, her escapades with girls in her car had taught her how to kiss other girls but they hadn’t taught her how to be in a relationship. Heather let out a tiny laugh and pulled back for another moment, averting her gaze from the brunette and forced herself to admit, “I just like you a lot and it makes me nervous.”

“I hope it’s a good nervous – I mean not that I want to make you nervous or anything – it’s kinda cute you know – I think you’re cu-“ Veronica had begun to babble but found herself cut off by Heather pressing another kiss to her lips.

“It’s okay,” Heather interjected after they separated from the kiss. “You’re cute when you’re nervous too, Ronnie.” Heather carefully tucked a hair behind Veronica’s ear and held her face with that hand for a long moment before willing herself to pull her hand away and she suggested, “Stars?”

Veronica, who had been leaning into Heather’s touch gave a wordless nod and laid down onto the blanket, holding her arms open to invite Heather to come to lay in them. Heather quickly took up the offer and settled her head on Veronica’s chest and trained her vision unto the sky. Veronica held a hand up to the sky, pointing it just above Heather’s line of vision and spoke gently, “That’s my favorite constellation – it’s, uh, Andromeda? I just like how it’s shaped. It’s like part of another bigger one but…” Her voice, despite being soft sounded cheery as she pointed a little to her right and continued, “Oh, and that guy over there it’s just literally called Triangulum because it’s shaped like a triangle – like talk about lazy, right?”

Heather dutifully followed where Veronica pointed, genuinely fascinated by the information she was getting on the stars. “When did you learn all this?” Heather asked, damn well knowing they did not have an astronomy course offered at Westerburg High School.

Veronica bit her lip before she began to explain as she gestured with one hand and wrapped the other around Heather, “Um, after my friend Heather died – after I graduated I don’t know, I spent a lot of time sitting out on my roof because I couldn’t sleep and I don’t know – I had a lot of nightmares so I wanted to make something constructive with the late nights so….stars.”

“Do you miss her?” Heather asked, her own voice slightly catching in her throat. God, it was really the only chance she had to talk to Veronica about it – she wouldn’t tell her the truth if she was with her as Heather Chandler, but Heather Kennedy? Maybe. At least she was hopeful Veronica was willing to be soul-bearing since that seemed that was kind of the tone they had set for the evening.

Veronica released a laugh and sighed. “Yeah, I do.” She sucked in a sharp breath between her teeth and went on to explain, “I was with her when she…died and I guess I just wonder what she was thinking when it happened – her last words were ‘corn nuts’ but that’s not exactly profound and I – I know she had to be thinking something else. She looked so scared.” Veronica’s voice slightly shook at the end of the sentence and Heather’s heart broke for her.

Heather had wanted to say so many other things when she was dying: ‘I’m sorry’, ‘help me’, ‘why?’, ‘I don’t want to die’, ‘do you hate me?’, and most importantly – ‘I love you’. It was just frustrating because she was terrified and her throat had hurt so badly but she just couldn’t will any of the words she had actually meant to say up into her mouth. It was so stupid, but all she could get out was ‘corn nuts’. What a fucking stupid phrase to have be the last thing the world hears you say. Heather cleared her own throat, which was thick from how upset she currently was and spoke, “What happened to her?”

“It – okay it sounds a little extreme but –“ Veronica frowned and held Heather closer as if she was a security blanket and closed her eyes and admitted in the tiniest voice, “This guy, JD, he poisoned her.”

Heather wrapped an arm tighter around Veronica – she could tell that Veronica was still blaming herself for Heather’s death and while, yeah, she was pissed that she _was _dead, it wasn’t her fault. “Oh – wow,” Heather replied in an equally small voice, trying to keep her reaction as neutral as possible, in an attempt to keep Veronica talking.

Veronica buzzed her lips together, her eyes still screwed tightly shut and decided to disclose more of the story, “I was supposed to give her a prairie oyster – she was hungover – and I guess he switched the mugs and one of them had -“ Veronica cut herself off realizing she was basically about to disclose who the ghost ‘Kennedy’ has seen earlier was. She bit her lip again before anxiously carrying on, “It was full of ‘Big Blue’ Drain Cleaner and I didn’t realize and I handed it to her and – she only took a sip but I guess that was enough to kill her.”

"So...is that the girl I saw?" Heather asked, just trying to back herself up from the earlier teasing that she had given Veronica. The girl under her nodded in an affirmative. “If she's still here maybe she's upset, but that’s not your fault,” Heather quickly defended, attempting to keep her voice calm – attempting to sound like she wasn’t a participant of the events that had occurred. “You said it yourself, he switched the glasses and you didn’t know about it. That doesn’t make it your fault. It was an accident.”

“I guess,” Veronica mumbled, her voice sounding like it was on the verge of breaking with tears. “She was my best friend and we – we didn’t exactly end on the best of terms so I guess I just kinda feel like an asshole about it.”

Heather picked herself up from Veronica’s body and then dragged Veronica into a sitting position. She gently captured the taller’s face in her own hands and held it close to her own as she began to speak earnestly, “That doesn’t make you a bad person, Sawyer. Mistakes make you human. They make you alive and – yes she’s dead but you aren’t and maybe she’d want you to keep living.”

A weak smile fell upon Veronica’s face, her eyes still heavy with sadness. God, it never hit Heather how much her death had fucked Veronica up. Heather leaned forward to give Veronica a tender kiss. She also wished things were different for them; maybe easier. If Heather was alive she was hopefully going to go to Brown and, yeah, maybe in another universe this was supposed to be her on this roof with Veronica Sawyer. The _real _her – the Heather Chandler her.

Heather laid them back down, this time, she was cradling Veronica in her arms and she cleared her throat, a slight tremble in it, “Tell me more about the stars?”

Veronica pointed up to the sky.


	6. Warm Bodies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heather has an honest conversation with Veronica.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> quarantine has me like [updates the same fanfic 3 days in a row]
> 
> anyway! here's the Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0fJFbK5wCIPfd7xxjsHAM8?si=D9Y5F3eCSvaySjs-puimOQ
> 
> enjoy some unhinged lesbians!
> 
> and as always,  
twitter: laurahoIIis  
tumblr: harlcyquinzcl.tumblr.com

What Heather hated the most about taking over Kennedy’s life were the classes. The girl was a damned _education _major; Heather had absolutely no interest in teaching. If she had life her way she was going to either marry rich or become a District Attorney. The former was probably unlikely, so she had hoped for the latter…until she had, well, died. So, she found herself attempting to take dutiful notes for Kennedy in some introduction to education course. Yawn.

Heather’s borrowed body was vibrating; she just wanted to see Veronica again. As she scribbled another note down about something to do with the ‘ethics of the classroom’ she sighed. She needed to tell Veronica that she wasn’t Kennedy. Heather rolled her lips between her teeth and shook her head to herself – Veronica would absolutely hate her fucking guts if she knew she possessed her girlfriend and hadn’t told her straight away.

As for Heather? It would ruin last night for her. A ghost of a smile crept upon her face as she thought about Veronica falling asleep on her on the roof. They had stopped stargazing long before that, but she wasn’t about to shove Veronica off of her and run. It was everything that she wanted and more. She had missed people and just the ability to _be _in a space with someone – no talking necessary, just hanging out. The professor at the front of the room said something about seeing them next week and Heather pulled herself out of her thoughts and shoved the notebook back into Kennedy’s bag and began a walk back to ‘her’ dorm.

A set of hands came up from behind her and covered her eyes and she panicked. She quickly pulled away before whoever it was that was touching her had a chance to speak. Turning around she saw a sheepish looking Veronica and scowled, “Jesus, did you have a brain tumor for breakfast? You scared the shit out of me.” Heather slumped as she had the realization that what she had just done was not at all ‘in character’ of the ‘sweet-adorable-patient’ Heather Kennedy persona she had been working on crafting. It appeared that Veronica had _also _noticed that she was sounding more like Heather Chandler than Heather Kennedy. “Wait –“ Heather started as a defense.

“Okay – god I won’t do it again,” Veronica said, furrowing her brow, as she looked deep in thought about what had transpired. _Wait. _Was Veronica really that blind? She knew that like deniability was something people had in desperate times, but that just felt like willful ignorance.

“I didn’t mean to yell at you,” Heather muttered, her face growing red, “I’ve just kind of had a bad day – I don’t know what’s going on in any of my classes.” She ran a hand through her hair and then dropped it limply to her side. “Sorry,” Heather said, her voice coming out in a huff.

Veronica frowned but seemed to acknowledge the apology. “I was just going to ask if you wanted to come over to my place – but if you’re not doing great I don’t want to like –“

“I would love to,” Heather quickly interjected. Her voice was coarse and desperate – she was just so damn weary from everything that was going on in her ‘borrowed’ life. Heather had been a good student in high school but, god, that was _high school. _Now she was stuck at an Ivy League and struggling to adapt so rapidly to someone else’s life. “Being around you makes me feel better – it would be a welcome distraction,” Heather explained offering a weak smile.

Veronica moved to stand next to Heather and gingerly took her hand, “Are you sure? I don’t wanna like piss you off.”

They began walking and Heather felt like a dick. She sighed and nodded, “Yes, promise – I just snapped a little bit.” They made their way to Veronica’s room in relative silence. They were both just…uncomfortable with Heather’s outburst and when the door shut Veronica turned to face her a sort of resolved look on her face. “What’s up?” Heather asked, apprehension creeping into her voice. Heather was certain she was caught – that Veronica was about to read her the riot act for what she was doing. It wasn’t like she had planned on taking over Kennedy’s life – it just happened.

“Come here,” Veronica murmured holding a hand out to Heather. She timidly took hold of the hand in front of her and found herself being pulled forward into a kiss. Her hands naturally sought home around Veronica’s neck as she found herself being pulled even closer. Heather let out a small breathy laugh and dived back into the kiss. The kiss grew into more familiar territory for Heather as an urgency flared up and Heather’s hands slid down to rest on Veronica’s shoulders, her fingers twisting into the fabric of the shirt.

Veronica pulled back for a moment, her face flushed and an uneven smile laying brightly across her face. Heather could almost swear that she was glowing and she let out her own stupid laugh, dropping her head to the ground with it. Veronica echoed the laugh but decided to be bold in her attempt to romance the other girl. She quickly pulled her into another steaming kiss and picked her up. The action earned a small surprised yelp from Heather as she instinctively wrapped her legs around Veronica’s waist and her arms wrapped desperately around Veronica so she could keep herself steady. Veronica took another moment to set Heather on her bed and climbed up her body after her.

“Let me make today better,” Veronica murmured, the need in her voice articulating exactly how she wanted to make her day better. Heather allowed herself to be laid down; her chest rose and fell in heaves as she watched Veronica work her way back up toward her. Veronica’s pupils were fully blown and Heather let out an anticipatory gasp at the sight of it. She brought her hands out to reach for Veronica, sitting up slightly to close the distance between them as they began to kiss again. It quickly grew fevered and desperate, small noises of contentment escaping from either girl, when Veronica began to trail kisses across Heather’s jaw and down to her neck. Heather’s head lulled off to the side, granting Veronica further access, and her eyes lulled shut as Veronica alternated between gentle kisses and bites against her pulse point.

Then Heather’s eyes shot back open – this wasn’t right – she couldn’t let this go any further than it already had. “Veronica,” Heather mumbled in an attempt to get the other girl’s attention, her voice coming out husky and nervous.

Veronica paused pulling back into a seated position at the sound of Heather’s voice, her face full of anxiety that she had done something wrong or had crossed a line they hadn’t agreed upon, “Yeah?”

Heather took a moment and also moved into a seated position and opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated and moved to a standing position, giving herself the opportunity to run if she needed to. She hated this, _fuck _she hated this so much, but she couldn’t walk around letting Veronica think she was her girlfriend any longer. She took in a heady breath and spoke, “I’m not her.”

The look on Veronica’s face absolutely killed Heather; it went on a journey – first from confusion, to recognition, shock, deep sadness, and then finally landed on anger. Veronica’s eyebrows narrowed at her and her voice was filled with enough venom to kill Heather with one blow, “Are you kidding?”

Heather gaped at her for a moment, unsure of where to begin or how to explain herself, “It was an accident.” The borrowed voice came out in a waver and she felt the tears begin to well in her eyes, “I didn’t do it on purpose, Veronica, I –“

“No, but you still did it – and you – how long? Why didn’t you tell me before, oh I don’t know I tried to have sex with my girlfriend for the first time?” Veronica spat, her voice well off into incredulous. She stood crossing her arms around herself almost attempting to protect herself from the injustice Heather had just thrust upon her.

Heather’s face fell and a flush worked its way up onto her cheeks. She meekly began to explain, “Since yesterday – before you came over.” Her eyes fixed to the floor and she shook her head, “I don’t know how to leave – I’ve been trying since it happened and nothing works, I can’t will myself to leave, I can’t just like jump out of her like the movies – I might be a bitch but I’m not exactly thrilled that I took over your girlfriend’s life, okay?”

“So everything last night was you,” Veronica stated, her voice momentarily losing some of the grit behind it. Veronica bit her lip and let out a huff through her nose, trying to find the right thing to say. “Did you mean it?” She finally asked after a beat of silence.

Heather lifted her head from looking at the ground and caught Veronica’s line of vision and her heart caught in her chest. Veronica looked heartbroken, her eyes were heavy, but her brows were still bent downward, almost as if she was filled with rage still. “Yeah,” Heather admitted her own frown spreading across her face. Heather brought herself to lean against the bed opposite to Veronica and shrugged. “You know when you said you wish you knew what I was thinking when I was dying – I wanted to say all of that to you – at first when it was happening I thought you did it on purpose and – fuck Veronica I’ve never been that scared before.” She let out a shaky breath and continued, “I didn’t want to die.”

“I’m sorry,” The taller choked out and fell silent for a moment as she thought hard about what she needed to do to rectify the situation they were trapped in. Veronica clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth once she had made up her mind and she shook her head, “We have to fix this.” She pushed herself away from her bed and over to her desk and began to shuffle through a few different books on her desk and finally came across a newspaper that she pulled up and held out to Heather. “There’s a psychic and we’re going to get her to get you the fuck out of here – and once you stop possessing my girlfriend I want you to leave me alone.”

“Veronica –“ Heather protested a twin set of tears beginning to slide down her face.

She found herself quickly cut off by Veronica speaking, “No – you’re never going to be alive and I can’t keep hurting myself by pretending that you are – I – I care about you _a lot, _Heather, but you’re never going to be alive again and – I can’t deal with this.”

“You know what? Fuck you, Sawyer.” Heather abruptly shouted through the bleariness in her eyes. Heather enacted her plan to run and scooped up Kennedy’s bag from the ground and bolted. It wasn’t to escape the exorcism or anything like that – it was to escape the fact that she didn’t want to cry her eyes out in front of Veronica, again. She stepped out of the dorm building, tears freely flowing down the cheeks of the borrowed body and she feverishly looked around for somewhere to go; she couldn’t go back to Kennedy’s dorm or Veronica would just follow her. Which, she already knew that she was doing based on the door clicking open and the sound of running coming from behind her. Heather bolted – it was only six in the evening so she just needed to find somewhere to hide. She missed her friends, she missed her parents, she missed her bed – all she wanted was to go home.

She knew Kennedy had a car on campus it was just a matter of figuring out where the car itself was; she was going to drive until she couldn’t drive anymore. Heather knew a lot of things about herself – she wasn’t a good person, she wasn’t polite, or kind, or forgiving, but god she didn’t feel like she deserved _this. _What a fucked up unfinished business she had gotten herself into. She ran through one of the lots nearest to Kennedy’s dorm and pulled out the keys she had; taking note of the brand of car it was and began to try the keys in every vehicle in the lot until she found a winner. She knew she probably looked like a psychopath to any passersby (or at least a carjacker) but she couldn’t seem to care. This wasn’t her life. Veronica had made that _damn _clear.

Heather let out a sob of relief and climbed into the car, throwing the bag onto the passenger seat and fumbled with putting the key in the ignition. Once the car finally roared to life, Veronica came into view. She looked out of breath but continued running into the parking lot, looking around for Kennedy’s car. Heather then, floored it out of there. She couldn’t do this; she couldn’t be berated by Veronica for another mistake. Heather glanced into the review mirror just as she caught sight of Veronica running into the aisle of the parking lot she had just pulled out and she began to drive.

She was going to Sherwood and nothing was going to stop her.

On the first day of driving she could only make herself drive about halfway there. She had begun to cry more from the events of the day and just found it unsafe for her to be driving. It was 3 am and she pulled off at a gas station and began to fuel up the stupid Oldsmobile she had been stuck in for such a long time and wiped at her eyes. She hated her afterlife and she hated her borrowed life. Everything just always ended in pain and she couldn’t take it anymore. Once she finished up fueling the tank she turned around to find a man watching her at a distance.

“Everything all good there, sweetheart?” He crooned, attempting to make himself sympathetic. He was an older man – not _too _old though – just verging on his late 50s. He had salt and pepper hair, and a few hard lines set into his forehead just to indicate that he was, in fact, aging.

Heather stopped her sniffling and shot the man a look that could kill, “I’m great.” She deadpanned and closed the gas cap to the tank. She began to prepare herself for the other half of the driving but found the man standing behind her even closer.

“You know, pretty girls like you shouldn’t be out so late, there’s a lot of bad people out here – what do you think your mama would say?” He said beginning to bring his hands up to Heather’s sides.

Heather plastered on a fake grin and turned around to face the man. He looked surprised at the sudden friendliness emanating off of the girl but she again subverted his expectations. Rage took Heather over and with a quick flick of her wrist she found the man gripping for air at his neck as she focused on holding him about ten feet above the ground. She knew it had been a stretch to see if any of her ghost skills still applied while she inhabited a body, but she was incredibly grateful for the pay-off. “What was that, motherfucker?” He let out a gurgled response and Heather could feel herself just growing a little more unhinged and let out a barked laugh and spoke again, “Sorry what was that?”

“F-fuck you, bitch.”

Heather let out another laugh and then her face grew hard and she abruptly dropped him. He dropped with a force and crumpled once he hit. The man let out a groan and attempted to pull himself to his feet. Heather quickly shot a glance to him and as she climbed into the car she spoke, “It’d be a good idea if you weren’t out so late – you never know what kind of ‘bad people’ you could meet.” Then she sped off. He would probably live – Heather didn’t care really either way. She was tired of everything – she was _over_ everything. Who cared about the delicate balance of the universe? Her entire life was up-ended just because of a mistake, so why should she care if some fucking old pervert lived? Eventually, the adrenaline of attempted murder wore off and she pulled off to the side of the road on a highway and leaned back in her seat.

The sleep itself wasn’t satisfying but it was just enough to make her ‘safe to drive’ again. She had tossed and turned and the anxiety of some state trooper pulling up behind her and telling her that her car had been reported stolen or arresting her for sleeping off to the side of the road kept waking her up every other hour. It was about 1 pm when Heather realized she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again and resigned to the fact that she should just get driving. Day two was uneventful. She stopped for gas a few more times, but nothing as eventful as her previous night happened – probably granted the fact that it was daylight hours.

When it hit around 8 pm she finally rolled into Sherwood, Ohio. As soon as Heather drove past a sign that read, ‘Welcome to Sherwood! Ohio’s favorite small town!’ she let out a gasp. She was horrified. Had she really done this? Hauled some body that wasn’t even hers all the way back to her shitty little hometown? Heather didn’t have time to contemplate the ethics of what she was doing – yes she had finally taken this thing too far, but she didn’t care anymore. She couldn’t _let_ herself care anymore.

She drove herself over to a small graveyard on the south side of town and pulled into the parking lot, shutting off the car and climbing out. She hopped the iron fence, cursing the fact that Kennedy’s body was much shorter than her own and began a hunt; she was going to find herself. She just had to see her body for herself. She began a frenzied search of each row of the cemetery when her eyes fell upon someone a few rows away sitting on the ground next to a tombstone. Heather hesitated before she took a small step back and called out, “Hello?”

The head of the dark figure snapped toward her and then let out a familiar sigh as it pulled itself into a standing position. “Ronnie?” Heather called out as she took a couple of steps closer to the headstone.

“Yeah,” Veronica acknowledged in an exhausted voice as she and Heather closed the distance between each other. The pair stood about a foot away, both as uncomfortable as possible.

Heather was at a loss for words – just surprised that Veronica had been willing to follow her all the way out there. She ran her tongue over her lips and let out a small huff of laughter, “How did you beat me here?”

“I had a hunch – I mean it wasn’t a good one but…shit I don’t know, Heather, I just felt like you were going to go home so I took a Greyhound – nonstop to Sherwood.” Veronica explained with a shrug before she continued, “I’ve been here since like eight in the morning. I mean not like – _here _but like home.”

“Why’d you follow me?”

Veronica thought hard for a moment and sucked in a deep breath before answering, “I meant it when I said I care about you, Heather.” Veronica buzzed her lips together and bounced on her feet a little due to the anxiety of the situation that they were in and then she spoke again while looking off to the side, “I didn’t want anything to happen to you – I mean shit, Heather, you were really upset and I was kind of just hoping you weren’t actually going to kill yourself this time.”

Heather gave a weak smile to Veronica and shook her head, “That wasn’t exactly on my to-do list for tonight.” She drummed her fingers against her legs and took a glance at the slab hidden behind Veronica. Her stomach bottomed out, it was her name written on the stone. “Fuck me,” She muttered under her breath.

Veronica watched as Heather dropped to her knees in front of the grave and all she could do was pity her. She looked pathetic and she knew it was partially her fault but she still felt pangs of anger whenever there was the re-realization she had stolen Heather Kennedy’s body in the first place. After a moment lost in her thoughts she had noticed that Heather had begun digging at the dirt below her frantically. Veronica quickly dropped to her knees and grabbed the other girl by the wrists and exclaimed quietly, “Heather, what the hell are you doing?”

Heather allowed herself to be stopped and spoke as honestly as she could, “I – I need to see – because maybe I can get out of this goddamn body and back into mine and – I don’t know – I didn’t exactly spend time with myself after I was murdered, Sawyer.” Heather then wrenched the borrowed hands free from the grasp of the taller girl and began to dig again.

Veronica then began to urge her to stop, “Heather quit it – we could get in serious trouble – Heather – stop!” She then grabbed at the girl again, pulling her up into a backward hug, attempting to restrain her arms behind her.

“Let me go, Veronica,” Heather grunted. They began a struggle, Heather trying to wriggle free from Veronica’s grasp. The fought for several moments as Heather argued again, “Let me go!” Veronica did all she could to hold Heather closer and harder but the smaller managed to break loose by backing Veronica into a tombstone with all her might.

Heather aimed her hands toward where she knew her body was buried and made a lifting motion as she exerted all the effort she could. Veronica took a tumble and attempted to recover and grab Heather again by the wrists, but it was too late. Out of the dirt a coffin rose into view. Veronica, now shocked and fucking appalled at what Heather was capable of was only able to grip the wrist that she had reclaimed tighter. “Holy shit,” Veronica said, almost a statement to being horrified at the ghost’s powers.

“Just let me do this, Veronica,” Heather demanded, her Demon-Queen persona reviving for an instance. “I just need to see it for myself.”

Veronica loosened the grip on Heather’s wrist but brought her hand down to take her hand and she began to cautiously walk over to the coffin as Heather drug her along. “I don’t know if you should open it –“ Veronica began to protest.

“You can leave,” Heather stated simply as she let go of Veronica’s hand to begin to wrench the lid of the coffin off. She struggled for a moment with the weight of it when she turned to face Veronica, “A little help, Sawyer?” Veronica hesitated for a moment. She thought her tampering with bodies days were over. She took a deep breath and helped Heather lift.

The lid came off with a soft ‘pop’ and tumbled to the ground. The minute that the pair caught a glimpse of what was inside the coffin a deafening silence fell over them. It was the shock of what they were seeing. Or, rather, what they weren’t seeing.

“Where the fuck is my body?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i deadass don't know where I'm taking this but I sure am going somewhere so uhhhhh leave some feedback I'm desperate


	7. Crimson Peak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our favorite gay disasters reminisce

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm a mess and this lowkey is too but I know where I'm going w/ her now lmao let's party
> 
> Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2pwVGDMyaOV8TEIcBqEmp8?si=9gxMLeMGTlaKBj6t9xqQwg
> 
> twitter: laurahoIIis  
tumblr: harlcyquinzcl.tumblr.com
> 
> and obvi i love feedback so it would be appreciated!!

There were few things on this Earth that Veronica Sawyer was sure of; one – she attracted psychopaths, two – she was _attracted _to psychopaths, three- she desperately needed to go to therapy. She watched as Heather’s face fell as she climbed atop the coffin and began to look for a sign of _something_. “What the _fuck _is going on here?” Chandler barked out in a laugh and then continued on, “Am I in hell? Seriously, this has to be hell.”

“There has to be an explanation for this – I mean, shit, bodies just don’t disappear Heather,” Veronica offered as she put a gentle hand on the other girl’s shoulder. Veronica wet her lips and glanced anxiously around the cemetery before urging her on, “We should get out of here though, look, we don’t know where you are but –“

She was cut off by Heather’s bitter whisper echoing her words, “Bodies don’t just disappear.”

Veronica retrained her eyes back over to Heather who was looking solemnly down into the coffin and she frowned. Heather looked like she had been through hell – her eyes were hollow and sunken into her face and all Veronica could do was feel guilty. She felt like she had pushed Heather to the point of breaking. Veronica let out a sigh and gave the distraught girl a squeeze on her shoulder, “We can look for it but I seriously think you need to sleep, Heather.”

Heather stayed silent for a moment, repeatedly running her bottom lip between her teeth and uttered, “Okay.” She climbed off of the coffin and gestured for Veronica to back off. Veronica quickly took _several _steps backward out of the line of fire and watched half-amazed, half-horrified as Heather lifted the coffin and essentially dropped it back into its hole. The coffin was uncovered and all Heather could do was sigh and run a hand through the borrowed body’s hair, “I don’t think I can totally fix this.”

“Let’s just jet, I mean if your body’s missing and we don’t have it – they can’t pin it on us, right? The cops in this town aren’t exactly geniuses.” Veronica stated gesturing vaguely to nothing in particular.

“So, where did you want to go?” Heather asked as she tore her gaze from the hole in the ground and over to Veronica.

“Uh, back to my house I guess. My parents already know I’m home, I don’t think it’d hurt to sneak you in,” Veronica explained, reaching for Heather’s hand. It was almost out of habit; she knew that they both took a small security in the midst of the proverbial nightmare they found themselves trapped in. Heather glanced down at their clasped hands and began to walk back toward Kennedy’s car.

Sighing, Heather stopped in front of the fence and turned to face Veronica, admitting defeat, “Can you give me a boost?”

Veronica snorted out a laugh her eyebrows almost shooting off of her face from her surprise at receiving the request, “Wait, can you not get over?”

“Your girlfriend is short!”

Veronica let out another almost uproarious laugh and bent over for a moment attempting to collect herself, “Okay, okay, okay.” She put her back against the fence and created a cradle with her hands and nodded her head towards them, “Put your foot here and I’ll help okay?”

Heather grumbled but placed her hands on the fence behind Veronica and stepped up onto Veronica’s hands. With a quick heave, Veronica boosted Heather up to the top of the fence, which the smaller girl then promptly hopped over. Heather caught herself on the grass on the other side and turned around to wait for Veronica offering a small, “Thanks.”

Veronica followed a mere moment later, landing on her feet. She took a second to recover but then piped up, “Let me drive.” Heather went to argue but began to feel the weight of her adventuring wearing on the body she had been inhabiting. The body _hurt. _Her head was throbbing and her eyes weighed all-too-heavily on her. She fussed with the pockets of the jeans she was wearing for a moment but managed to fish the keys free and handed them over to Veronica.

Heather leaned the body against the car and fumbled with the door handle to the passenger seat, clumsily pulling it open and laying against the seat. Veronica had sat herself down in the driver’s seat, quickly moving the seat backward to create room for her legs. Veronica stole a glance over to Heather and her voice came out softly, “Are you okay – you don’t look so great.”

A weak, exhausted smile rose on Heather’s lips and she mumbled out, “I don’t feel great, Sawyer.”

Veronica took in a deep breath and spoke again clarifying, “Okay, yeah but why, like you have to be super tired, but like have you eaten? Water? Anything?” Heather’s silence following Veronica’s questioning was all the answer she needed. “Jesus, Heather, uh – god I – I’ll make you something when we get to my house okay? Just hang tight,” Veronica said, almost more to reassure herself than to reassure Heather.

She was almost certain Heather fell asleep once they arrived at Veronica’s childhood home and Heather let out a rather loud yawn and shifted to get out of the car. “I wish I could go home,” Heather spoke with an almost bitter honesty in her voice.

Veronica slid up next to her a minuscule frown now almost her resting state and replied, “I don’t know if that’d be a good idea.” Heather cocked her head to the side for a moment and shrugged. Veronica dug in her jacket pocket for her own set of keys and sorted through the keychain before landing on her house key and letting them both in.

“Hey, honey!” Mrs. Sawyer’s voice rang out from the living room. The girls froze for a fraction of a second before they continued to move into the house. “I see you picked up your…friend!” Veronica’s mom observed a knowing smile on her face at the two dreary-looking teens.

Veronica waited a moment and then jumped to a faux friendly persona, “Oh, yeah! Uh, mom, this is –“ She hesitated for another second, glancing over at the Heather she was gesturing to, swallowed rather hard, and continued to speak, “This is Heather Kennedy.”

Heather followed Veronica’s desperate gaze, or rather, _plea _for her to play along. She silently released a breath she had been holding in and attempted to perk up with the last of the energy she had and gave an almost aggressively friendly wave to Mrs. Sawyer and greeted, “It’s nice to meet you! Veronica’s told me that you were super sweet.”

Veronica quickly grabbed hold of Heather’s hand and spoke as she dragged the smaller girl off to the kitchen, “We’re gonna go make dinner, love you, mom, bye.” Heather was amused by the sudden urgency Veronica had exhibited and let out a small laugh as she found herself being sat down on a chair next to the kitchen island.

“What?” Veronica asked, the nerves in her voice almost manifesting visibly. She had begun a search through the fridge but pulled her head back from behind the door to look at Heather.

Heather shrugged, she lounged over the counter she was sat at – exhaustion now truly taking her over. She wanted to sleep so desperately but had to admit Veronica was _right _about eating and water and all that other crap. “Does your mom really embarrass you that much?” She asked, bringing her head to rest in her hand.

Veronica pulled two cans of coke out of the fridge and passed one over to Heather. “I – I kind of told her I had a girlfriend over the phone last week,” Veronica admitted, quickly turning back to the fridge and changing the subject, “So, uh there’s leftover pizza – I could make pasta – eggs, uh –“

She was cut off by Heather perking up and replying, “So, she thinks that _I’m _your girlfriend?” Heather cracked the coke open and took a long drink, the borrowed body almost rejoicing at the relief of getting a liquid in it. Heather let out a heavy breath and continued, “Pizza sounds good.”

“_Yes_, Heather,” Veronica groaned now just embarrassed at the situation she found herself in. She begrudgingly pulled the pizza box out of the fridge and set it on the counter between them. Veronica grabbed a slice and took a bite out of it.

“You’re so gross,” Heather laughed as she set her can down. Heather had been over to Veronica’s house more than she cared to admit so, she forced herself to stand and walked to the other side and grabbed a plate from the cabinets and set two pieces of the pizza on it.

“Cold pizza is good!” Veronica protested through the bite she had just taken. Heather let out a small sound of disgust and put her plate into the microwave, hit a few buttons, and started it.

Heather jumped up onto the counter, leaning her back against the cabinets and gave the other girl a pointed look, “It’s slimy – that’s disgusting – you’re gross.” The timer on the microwave dinged and Heather jumped off of the counter and grabbed the plate and gestured to the pizza on it, “This is what pizza is supposed to look like, Veronica.”

“You’re just mad because I’m right,” Veronica declared with a grin and took another bite out of her pizza.

“More like infuriating,” Heather grumbled as she brought the plate back over to her seat on the other side of the island. She leaned backward, attempting to a view into the living room, catching a glance of Mrs. Sawyer glued to the television. She blew a sigh through her lips and spoke in a low tone, “We need to find my body.”

Veronica swallowed another bite that she had been working through and bit her lip. She knew this was coming – it was Heather so of _course, _she wanted to figure out who had gone all ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ on her. “Before we do anything – you need to sleep. I could probably use a couple hours too if I’m being totally honest.” Heather began to protest but Veronica put a hand over the other girl’s and looked her in the eye, “You’re going to burn out if you keep going like this, please, just – we can look around town tomorrow and get all Law and Order about it, but you need a good night’s sleep.”

Heather stole a glance down at Veronica’s hand on ‘her’ own and ran her tongue over her lips and admitted defeat, “Fine, but I’m holding you to that.”

“I can’t imagine a universe where you wouldn’t.”

They ate in relative silence after that; Heather truly just becoming too exhausted to talk and Veronica not too far off from passing out herself. Veronica threw the dishes into the sink and the rest of the pizza back into the fridge. “You can sleep in my room,” Veronica mumbled groggily. She led Heather back up to her high school bedroom and popped the door open, gesturing for the girl to step in. Heather let out a humorless laugh and stepped into the room and then all-but-collapsed onto Veronica’s bed. A tinge of a smile quirked up on Veronica’s face; she couldn’t deny that Heather wasn’t cute, especially while she was in her own half-asleep state. God, she really wished Heather was alive.

“Do you want pajamas or?” Veronica asked as she made her way over to the dresser adjacent to her bed. A muffled sound of confirmation came from the ghost who was facedown in Veronica’s pillows. Veronica dug into one of the drawers and found herself face to face with an old t-shirt she had borrowed from Heather – god some evening when they had been hanging out at the Chandler residence.

* * *

“Oh fuck,” Heather had said as she knocked the bottle of wine they had been sharing over onto Veronica who had been laying on the ground. They were outside in Heather’s backyard – it was a weekend and the sun was out so they had sat out there, just talking for hours. It was…nice.

Veronica had sat up with a laugh – her shirt, however, was soaked and quickly staining red. “It’s okay,” Veronica had vowed to try to assure Heather that there was no _real _fault on her part.

Heather swore again and demanded, “Give me your shirt.” She held out her hand to Veronica and stood up.

Veronica looked shocked and mumbled, “What?”

Heather rolled her eyes, almost a full rotation in her skull, and exasperatedly explained, “I’m going to put it in the washing machine before it stains.”

Veronica hesitated for another moment before she obliged and began to unbutton her shirt and shrugged it off of her shoulders and handed it over to Heather. “Uh, here,” Veronica had mumbled.

Heather took it; her eyes dipping down to look over the other girl for a _second _took long and quickly made her way back into the house. Veronica sat out there for what felt like it had been hours but in reality, was something more like five minutes, her arms wrapped around her chest, feeling increasingly self-conscious with every moment – and more importantly worried what Heather’s parents would think if they saw a girl in their backyard with only a bra on. Eventually, Heather returned, a ‘Westerburg Class of ‘90’ t-shirt in her hands.

Heather cleared her throat uncomfortably and handed it over to Veronica. “Just give it back the next time I go over to your house,” Heather commanded. She took her spot back on the ground next to Veronica and picked up the bottle they had been drinking out of and took another swig. Veronica, surprised, took the shirt and examined it – ‘Chandler’ listed in big-bold red vinyl lettering on the back. Cute.

“Thanks, Heather.”

* * *

Veronica brought herself back to the present and handed the shirt over to Heather, “Hey, um, this is yours.” Heather turned her head to the side and her eyes widened in surprise at the recognition of the clothing. Veronica, almost instantly, became incredibly shy and mumbled, “I – uh – wear it sleep sometimes – but, uh – yeah here’s your shirt back.”

Heather sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed and let out a laugh as she ran her hands over the lettering on the back of the shirt, “You seriously kept this?”

Veronica began to sputter for words and then was taken more off-guard as Heather threw the shirt she was wearing off and let it fall to the ground and quickly unhooked her bra and slid it off. Heather put the shirt on and she took a deep inhale, “Thank you.”

“It’s just a shirt,” Veronica eked out, now thoroughly anxious about Heather. Veronica turned back toward her dresser and threw a pair of shorts over to Heather and then quickly changed her own clothes out for pajamas. It was just a tank top and a pair of athletic shorts – she had unfortunately taken most of her clothes with her to college so found herself lacking in that department. Veronica turned back toward Heather who was now fully changed and lounged back on the bed, her hands balled up into the fabric of the shirt and holding it close to her face. She looked – shit – she looked adorable.

Heather’s eyes popped open after a moment and she rose a brow at Veronica. Ever the reactionary, Veronica immediately began to very badly lie, “Sorry – I – uh – thought you fell asleep and was trying to – um – figure out how to like sleep around you.”

“Ronnie?” Heather spoke, more to get her to stop being frantic with anxiety than to get her attention – she already had too much of that. Veronica froze mid-babble and let out a small ‘hm?’ from the back of her throat. “You’re a shit liar,” Heather stated, a tiny grin hanging on her tired face, “What were you actually thinking? I’m pretty sure we’re past the point of needing to lie to each other.”

Veronica stayed rooted to where she stood, her face turning beet red, and her mouth hung open for a moment before she willed herself to speak, to speak _honestly_, “You’re cute – the thing with the shirt – it was…cute.”

Heather’s grin grew further across her face and she murmured, “Cute?” Veronica’s shoulders began to slump at the continual torment that Heather was putting her through. All the taller girl could offer was a sort of half-hearted gesture with her arms while searching for a response that wasn’t _‘Oh, gee, Heather. I have a huge crush on you, too bad you’re not alive because I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you’. _So, Veronica settled for some incoherent noises of anxiety and a shrug.

Heather contemplated how far to push Veronica – in her opinion, seeing Veronica get all flustered and blushy was probably the most attractive thing in the world. She bit her lip in anticipation and then carried the badgering on, “It’s just nice to have something that’s _mine. _Plus, it kind of smells like you.”

“Heather…” Veronica whined, now only capable of being outwardly displeased with what Heather was doing to her.

“What?” Heather asked, unable to keep the cocky grin off of her face. She shifted over in the bed, making room for the other girl to sit next to her. “I don’t bite,” The smaller stated.

Veronica ever so hesitantly walked over to the other side of the room and turned the light off and then turned back toward her bed. They were just going to go to sleep. It was fine. She was fine. The entire situation that they were in was _fine. _She crawled onto the side of the bed that was open – forever grateful that she had a full-sized bed. It didn’t make for a lot of room but it was better than trying to cram two bodies into a twin.

Veronica rolled on her right side to face the center of the bed and found herself nearly nose to nose with Heather. They both took a pause for a moment and Veronica’s voice crackled to life, “I wish you weren’t dead.”

Heather released an uncomfortable laugh but maintained the heavy eye contact she and Veronica were keeping and replied, “That makes two of us.” Heather brought one of her hands up to cup one of Veronica’s cheeks, lightly running her thumb over it. Veronica gave an incredibly weak and barely visible smile in response to the display of affection.

“Heather I – “

“I know.”

Veronica leaned forward, closing the gap and kissed her. She had to stop doing that; it was starting to become habit-forming. She had a girlfriend – she knew it wasn’t right but – well shit Heather _was _possessing her girlfriend. That had to make it less awful, right? She pulled back, almost embarrassed, incredibly glad that she couldn’t see the other girl’s face in the darkness – and the fact that Heather couldn’t see her panicking. Veronica waited for what felt like an eon when Heather suddenly wrapped an arm over her and pulled her back in with a heavy kiss.

Veronica released a muffled hum of surprise but her hands awkwardly searched to wrap around Heather. Their legs tangled together as their lips began to softly move against each other. Heather moved her hand to tangle into Veronica’s hair, her nails scratched against her scalp. They held together like that for a long moment an occasional murmur of contentment summoning for either girl’s lips. Veronica then pushed Heather by the shoulder onto her back and on the bed. Heather looked up at Veronica in shock, a small ragged breath escaping from her lips as she lifted her head up to look up at the girl hovering over her.

Veronica let out her own shaky breath and dove back in, her lips crushingly meeting Heather’s. Eventually, she pulled back for a moment – their lips still gently brushing together and spoke, “I want to make up for yester- “

Heather cut Veronica off by pulling her into another kiss and nodded as she rested her forehead against Veronica’s and breathed, “Please.” The phrase hardly came out louder than a whisper but it was all the permission Veronica needed to be spurred onward.

The next morning was murder. The moment that the sun pulled over the horizon and cast its beams into Veronica’s bedroom sleep was no longer an option. Veronica’s body ached for…several reasons as she forced herself to begin to wake up. Some aches were due to the uncomfortable bus ride she had hastily boarded in order to stand a fighting chance in catching up with Heather and, well, some due to the clingy body greedily laid across her. Veronica finally pried her eyes open to the day and glanced down at Heather who was peacefully snoozing atop her.

Heather was still Heather even if she was trapped in another person’s body; her hair was tousled sky-high from their activities the night prior, her lips slightly pursed and mouth open _slightly_, plus being possessive kind of seemed to be Heather’s ‘go-to’. One of Heather’s hands was gripped onto Veronica’s waist while the other was draped over Veronica’s shoulder and Heather’s head was delicately resting on Veronica’s chest. Veronica was almost certain Heather would be able to hear how fast her heart was beating; sure, they had had sex, but that didn’t change any of the conflicting and unnerving feelings she was having about Heather. She wanted to be with Heather but _real _Heather; not Heather who had stolen another girl’s body and made it her own life. That was wrong, this was wrong.

Heather began to stir, her arm that was around Veronica’s waist, gripping harder. She let out a muffled yawn and opened her eyes. “Morning,” Heather greeted in a syrupy, sleep-heavy voice.

Veronica gave a smile in response, one of her hands idly found its way to the other girl’s hair, beginning to push the blonde out of her face. “How’d you sleep?” Veronica asked, attempting not to broach the topic of the fact that they were naked and cuddling in Veronica’s bed. If she just pretended it didn’t exist it wouldn’t happen. That was that.

Heather closed her eyes again, nuzzling her head against Veronica’s neck and placed a small quick kiss before she responded, “Great.” Veronica’s pulse immediately quickened upon the kiss and Heather let out a small chuckle. “You really are such a pillowcase, Ronnie.”

“What d’you mean?” Veronica anxiously mumbled as she started to detangle herself from the girl on top of her. Heather obliged by rolling off of Veronica and laying on her back and looking up to the ceiling with a sigh. Veronica quickly studied Heather’s body her eyes unable to keep away from the various, um, marks she had left on her from the night before. She sucked in a sharp breath.

“Last night was great and now you’re freaking out,” Heather stated, dropping her head to the left to look at Veronica. Rolling her eyes she sat up and began to reach for the close she had discarded on the ground the night before.

“I’m not freaking out I’m just…freaking out.” Veronica responded as she too began to get ready for the day. “Uh – do you need to borrow something?” She called looking back over her shoulder to catch Heather pulling on the shirt Veronica had given back to her.

“I doubt you have anything that would fit,” Heather countered as she pulled her

pants back on. Heather paused for a moment and turned around, prepared to confront Veronica, “I want to talk about last night.” Veronica, who was in the middle of getting dressed, paused after she finished shimmying into her own jeans. “We fucked Veronica and to be honest, it was pretty amazing and now you’re trying to act like it didn’t happen and I get it this entire _thing _is wildly fucked up but I’m not going to let you act like it didn’t happen. You kissed me, Veronica.”

“Yeah, I did,” Veronica sighed and turned to fully face Heather. “This is just – it’s really fucking hard, okay?” She ran a hand through her hair and began to snap back at the other girl, “I like you, Heather. I like you a lot, but you’re not you – I’m trying not to fall in love with a ghost, okay?” Veronica turned back to her dresser and grabbed a shirt, throwing it on quickly, “Plus, fuck, I mean you’re kinda _in _my girlfriend’s body and that’s literally another person’s life and I can’t just sit around and pretend that things are so la-di-dah and happy even if I do like you. That’s fucked up.”

Heather’s jaw hung slightly open and she popped it to the side in a crooked grimace, speaking suddenly, “Okay, fine.” She went to Veronica’s door and pulled it open and began to walk out, “If you’re so eager to get rid of me then let’s go look for my body, Sawyer.”

“Fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how do y'all feel about these fighting girlfriends-who-aren't-girlfriends-but-are-totally-girlfriends?


	8. VVITCH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They fight. They get an understanding of each other. They learn that someone could help them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooooh hello it's been over a month LMAO hi guys
> 
> as always I love feedback n thrive off of that but here go the links
> 
> spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6hvjtObSaK3pNQ3os0waUl?si=TWEzh7kuRiCzA4_RfmqmWA  
twitter: @laurahoIIis  
tumblr: harlcyquinzcl.tumblr.com

Deafening. That was the only describable word for the silence that fell over Veronica and Heather as they drove around Sherwood. Heather was exhausted; the weight of how ragged she had been running her borrowed vessel was beginning to catch up with her. Her back hurt from sleeping in the car on the way back to Ohio, her stomach was already grumbling about the lack of sustenance it was experiencing, and just the sheer exhaustion she was feeling both physically and mentally. She slumped for a moment as she drove before pulling off to the side of the road and put the car into park. “I shouldn’t be driving,” She rapidly defended before Veronica could get a word in edgewise.

Things had been tense since they had fought that morning and with their lack of a lead on Heather’s body, the mood wasn’t going to lighten anytime soon. Veronica, who, while sleep-deprived and anxious, wasn’t as overworked as the other girl and spoke up, “I can drive.” Veronica was desperate to keep the peace between them. She knew she had fucked up big time – last night by sleeping with her but also by fighting with her that morning. She just really had a knack for putting her foot directly into her mouth.

“Okay,” Chandler muttered as she left the engine running but popped the door open and walked behind the car to switch spots with the other girl. Veronica quickly slid across the seat and pulled the driver’s side door shut. She chanced a glance over to Heather as she clumsily clamored into the car, slamming the door shut behind herself. Veronica frowned as she forced her vision away from Heather and put the car back into drive. God, she hated everything about herself.

The thing with Veronica was, despite saying she wasn’t desperate to fall in love with a ghost, Veronica was essentially hurtling down that hill at maximum velocity. She was, undoubtedly falling in love with Heather Chandler and it made Veronica want to crumple herself up into a ball and die. She knew it was a grand improbability that they would find her body because, really, who runs off with a year-old corpse? Still, it was eerie that Heather’s entire body had just vanished under seemingly mysterious circumstances.

Veronica chanced another glance over to Heather who was half slumped-over in her seat; she looked frail and it was beginning to bother Veronica. She knew Heather was desperate but she really either needed her to just go back to being her not-so-friendly ghost roommate or to get her to move on. She was desperate to get Kennedy back to the forefront of bodily autonomy. The stomach that Heather was borrowing growled for what felt like the millionth time in the past few hours of search, triggering Veronica to make an executive decision. She made a rather abrupt turn onto the main stretch of Sherwood and began to follow it toward the interstate.

“What are you doing?” Heather grumbled as she lifted her head from her chest and rubbed at her eyes while looking at their surroundings. “I thought we were going to the high school?” She mumbled, her voice losing its edge.

Veronica rolled her eyes. Heather was ever the critic, even if Veronica was trying to do something nice for her. There was just _always _a rebuttal; always something snarky to bite back with – to be fair Veronica always gave it back to her in spades. “You literally sound like you’re starving and I’m not exactly too keen on having you pass out on me, Heather,” Veronica shot back as she pulled closer to their target destination.

“You’re kidding,” Heather spoke as she forced herself to become more awake as their destination came into view, Veronica pulling them into the parking lot. It was a Waffle House – the patron saint of every broke Westerburg High School attendee.

“It’s cheap and if I’m remembering things correctly you’re the person who took _me _here for the first time,” The living girl said pointedly. She was trying to be patient with Heather but goddamn; it was getting hard tolerating the constant attitude stemming from the other girl.

* * *

When Heather had taken Veronica to the Waffle House, it wasn’t because it was exactly the epitome of fine dining or she figured that it would woo Veronica; it was the only thing open at two in the morning in Sherwood. They had been at Heather’s house all evening – they had just been up talking – initially, it was Veronica just coming over to work on homework with Heather but it quickly dissolved into hanging out.

Heather attempted to not feel guilty about bringing Veronica around, especially since she figured she didn’t stand a fighting chance in ever dating her but she couldn’t help it. They were best friends if anything and tended to spend more time one-on-one than with the other two Heathers; they just meshed well together even if their personalities were starkly different. Heather was brassy and commanding, a streak of aggression with a harsh stare while Veronica was big goofy laughs, a good heart, and anxious to a fault.

“I’m hungry,” Veronica had complained as she stared up at the ceiling in Heather’s room.

Heather, who had already been staring off in Veronica’s direction lifted her brows and mumbled, “My parents don’t know you’re here so I don’t think we can cook something – plus I don’t feel like cooking – let’s go out.”

Veronica tilted her head toward the other girl on the other side of the bed, catching her vision for a second longer than she had intended, but anxiously laughed out as she averted her gaze, “Go where? It’s like two in the morning, Heather.”

“That one breakfast place opened up a couple months ago and they’re 24/7,” Heather stated crisply as she continued to carefully eye Veronica. She blew a sigh out of her lips and spoke again attempting to entice Veronica into going out with her, “I’ll pay for it.”

With that Veronica gave in and they found themselves sneaking out of Heather’s house and into her car. After a little bit of arduous searching of Sherwood, they found the fluorescently lit mecca they were searching for – Waffle House. Heather, exhausted, drug Veronica into the restaurant and sat them down at a booth in a far off corner, windows facing out toward the parking lot.

“You don’t have to pay,” Veronica mumbled as she slid into the booth across from Heather.

Heather let out a snort of harsh laughter and rolled her eyes, “Can’t I do something nice for you?”

Veronica collected her hands in her lap under the booth and bit her lip, eyes glued at the menu that was already sitting at the table. “Yeah, but I don’t want it to be like this whole ‘I’m only hanging out with you for your money thing’, you know?” She explained bringing her eyes up to look at Heather.

Heather glanced up from her own menu and furrowed her brows for a brief moment before she admitted, “Veronica, you’re my best friend, why would I think you’re using me for my money?”

Veronica floundered with the information that she learned that she was _factually _Heather Chandler’s best friend and could only offer a haphazard shrug, “Uh, I don’t know, some people just say shit at school and think I’m a pity-project.”

“Pity-project?” Heather repeated, her voice coming out incredulous. “Who said that?” She pressed, leaning further onto the table separating them. She was pissed, okay yeah; she let Veronica into her popular-girls clique because she had a raging lesbian crush on her, but not because she pitied Veronica.

“Heather, it’s no big deal,” The brunette mumbled, leaning forward, trying to urge the other girl to not take it as seriously as she was. She hated when Heather took things too seriously and reacted immediately to a situation – she wished Heather could just be analytical for once in her life.

“Whoever had the balls to say that is as good as dead on Monday,” Heather swore, giving Veronica a pointed look. “I buy things for you because I can – it just means that we can go out and do things that we want to do without worrying about whether or not you can pay for it. That’d be bullshit.” Heather finished, leaning back in the booth, releasing a heavy sigh.

Veronica shifted in uncomfortable silence and returned her gaze back down to the menu. She could feel Heather continuing to look at her and closed her eyes for a moment and carefully smacked her hands down onto the menu on the table and looked back up for another short moment at the other girl, “Thank you – I know it can be a pain in the ass.”

“Veronica,” Heather groaned, letting out a rare genuine yet exasperated laugh and shook her head as she continued, “I’m not lying when I say you’re my friend. Just because I’m not a pillowcase and talking about how much I like you all the time doesn’t mean I hate your guts.”

Veronica looked up at the almost bubbly laugh escaping from Heather’s lips. She loved when Heather actually let go in front of her despite it being a rarity. A smile cropped up on Veronica’s face and replied, beginning to feel more at ease, “You’re my best friend too.”

“Pillowcase.”

* * *

“That was different,” Heather defended, her voice exasperated and raspy from the exhaustion. A blush began to pool onto her cheeks and she shook her head as she stepped out of the car, “Whatever, it’s not important.”

“What?” Veronica asked, her voice coming out almost equally as exhausted as she followed suit, not letting Heather get out of it that easily. Couldn’t Heather just speak to her for once? Like, holy shit was she incapable of communicating like a fucking adult – Veronica froze in her thoughts, _no, _she wasn’t; Heather was always going to be 17.

“When I took you here it was supposed to be a date, okay?” Heather declared as she shut the door to the car, making her way toward the restaurant. “So, are we eating or what?” Heather continued, chancing a glance backward to Veronica who had gone into a soft jog to catch up with the other girl.

Veronica moved to question Heather further but just sighed and held the door open for the other girl, at least attempting not to broach the subject for that moment. Heather led them back to the same booth they had sat at the last time they had been there and slid into the booth.

Heather’s hands gingerly lowered to the menu, her eyes scanning across it, trying desperately to decide what she wanted to eat when the uncomfortable silence was disrupted. “Was it really supposed to be a date?” Veronica blurted out, almost instantaneously regretting her outburst.

Heather kept her eyes glued down onto the shoddily laminated plastic below her hands and mumbled an irritated, “Yes, Veronica.”

“Did – so – wait – how long have you liked me?” Veronica asked, still attempting to pry at least a little more information from the other girl. She was just intrigued – if she had known sooner maybe a lot of things wouldn’t have turned out the way that they had. They could’ve been sitting there in that booth because Veronica decided to go home for the weekend and visit Heather, not because she was attempting to stop her from running away while possessing someone and then subsequently having to hunt down her corpse. Yeesh.

Heather, sensing that Veronica was not about to give up, finally lifted her gaze from the menu that she had been pretending to read. Her jaw was clenched rather tightly and she let out a half-hearted, “Why does it matter? Genuinely?”

Veronica drummed her fingers on the table below them and offered a despondent shrug while answering, “I wanted to know if I was a _total _oblivious idiot or not,” She released a heavy sigh and continued on, fixing her eyes on Heather’s, “It’s like, do you ever think about how things could’ve been different – between us I mean?”

A shadow of a smile quirked up momentarily on Heather’s lips and set blew out a quick breath of air that was intended to be a laugh. “I got a ‘real’ crush on you when we had French together,” Heather answered, maintaining the tremulous eye contact. Heather ran her teeth over her lips and hurriedly continued, “Before then, I thought you were cute, but the moment you sat in front of me in French that’s when I knew it was more than just some stupid infatuation.”

Veronica nodded, listening intently to the other girl. They locked eyes for another moment longer when Heather dipped her vision down, unable to continue to look at the other girl any longer. “If things were different, we’d both be at Brown and you’d be spending every night in my dorm room,” Heather murmured, a hint of humor seeping into her voice.

“Oh, _your _dorm?” Veronica questioned, a smile tugging up onto her face. She wanted to lighten the mood at least a little bit, she didn’t want Heather to be this downtrodden – especially given the inescapable circumstances they were trapped in.

Heather, yet again, lifted her eyes from the table and gave a weak smile. She took the bait that Veronica had so carefully laid and began to argue back, “As if I would have anything other than a single, Veronica. Me? Sharing a room? Plus, I’ve seen what your room looks like and I can’t imagine sleeping in your bed every night.” A playful smile grew larger over Heather’s face and she leaned forward onto the table, speaking again, her voice growing softer, almost hesitant, “And that way we couldn’t be interrupted – just you and me – doing whatever we wanted to do; late-night coffee runs, look at the stars, even if we just wanted to spend all day in bed we could.”

The awareness that Heather was actually a lot more romantic than she let on hit Veronica like oncoming traffic; was she really missing out on all of that because of one stupid fuck up? Switched mugs and a stupid high school boyfriend was why she wasn’t living the life she desperately wanted to be? Fuck that. Veronica’s lower lip quivered for a moment as she searched for words to say before simply settling on, “You’d skip classes for me?”

Without an ounce of hesitation, Heather answered, “If it meant I got to hold you all day, I’d drop out if it meant we didn’t have to move.” Her face was holding a contented smile, the vision of their ‘should-have-been’ life that she had painted in such a Technicolor manner truly surpassing whatever hell-scape reality they found themselves trapped in.

Veronica let out a hum of agreement, allowing her eyes to close so she could lose herself in Heather’s daydream. In her mind’s eye she could see them exchanging groggy, clumsy kisses – bumped noses and clinked teeth; a soft laugh erupting from one of them, drifting in and out of sleep the entirety of the day, and just being able to be _present _with each other. Her eyes popped open after a moment, adoringly catching Heather’s gaze. She sat up a little straighter in the booth and looked around, gauging to see how busy the restaurant was – a fry cook in the back and the sole waitress currently trapped helping another customer, awesome, _great. _

Veronica leaned across the booth and captured Heather’s lips in her own. They held like that for the briefest of moments when Veronica pulled back and nervously licked at her own lips. “Sorry,” Veronica muttered, chewing at her own lip. She really just kept digging herself deeper into this hole that she found herself trapped in. She breathed out a sigh and closed her eyes, admitting, “No, I’m not sorry actually I –“

“Alright, how can I help you girls today?”

Veronica rapidly tore her attention from Heather and to the waitress standing next to their table. “Uh, can I get a coffee – black – and um, sunny side eggs with toast?”

The waitress hummed a confirmation as she scribbled down the order on her notepad and turned her attention over to Heather. “I’ll get a ham and cheese omelet and an orange juice, thank you,” Heather uttered, attempting to put on a cheerful visage for the women serving them.

“Alright, I’ll have that right out for you girls.”

The waitress walked off leaving Veronica and Heather to stare at each other. What must’ve been longer than a minute passed when the waitress returned with their drinks and passed a few more pleasantries along. Finally, once the waitress was guaranteed to leave them alone for more than a few minutes, Veronica spoke up. “I’m not sorry because – okay, fuck because when I kiss you I feel something that I haven’t felt before and like as Hallmark and cheesy as it sounds I mean it, okay?”

Heather’s previously hardened, disappointed gaze faltered. Her eyebrows shot up and she breathed out a sigh, her jaw then coming up into a clench. “What do you mean?” Heather asked, her anger completely dissolving away along with her false persona of ‘incredibly strong’.

Veronica limply dropped her hands to the table and then awkwardly reached for her coffee cup and stated, almost too calmly, before she took a swig of the coffee, “I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with you.”

Heather kept silent. She studied seemingly every single inch of Veronica’s face, attempting to read every single micro-expression that could’ve been plastered across her face. She wanted to make sure Veronica was being honest with her – Heather didn’t want to get her hopes up and have herself get hurt. Again. “Well are you or aren’t you?” Heather asked, her voice almost a whisper.

Veronica pulled the mug away from her face and set it back down onto the table and held a hand out to offer it to Heather and answered as honestly as she could, “I think I am – I really do – I’m scared and I’m confused and it’s – it’s not fair to you because I’m freaking out but I really do think I love you; like a lot and not in the like ‘wishy-washy’ high school way. I love you, Heather.”

Heather had been biting down on her lip – not wanting to anticipate what the answer was going to be – if anything she had assumed the worst. Instead, she had finally been reciprocated. A croak of a voice that she guessed was her own crackled up in a mumble, “I love you, too.”

Veronica’s lips tugged up into a tiny smile, just taking Heather in for a moment. It then wavered on her lips before settling into a small frown as she took a sigh. “I don’t mean to be a dick when I talk about finding you – the _real _you. I just – I don’t think there is literally anything sane about what’s going on. I don’t want a half-version of you – if it’s you in someone else’s body or – or if it’s you getting all ghostly. I want the real Heather Chandler,” Veronica explained as she drummed her fingers against the table. “So, I guess if this is our chance to at least try to do that it’s – fuck I guess it’s worth it?” She finished, her hands collecting themselves back onto the coffee cup. She sighed and took another sip and continued, “Plus, I don’t think it’s fair to Heather, anyway. We don’t know if she’s like, okay, or whatever.”

“Right,” Heather murmured, shifting uncomfortably on her side of the booth. “I don’t think we should look at the high school – why would a body be there? I think –“

Heather was interrupted by their waitress setting their plates out in front of them. Veronica murmured a few words of appreciation which Heather immediately parroted. “Do you girls need anything else?” The waitress asked as she filled Veronica’s coffee back up.

Veronica and Heather exchange a look before they both turned back to look at the waitress and spoke in unison, “We’re okay!” They immediately exchanged another glance of shock at the fact they said the exact same thing at the exact same time.

Heather quickly turned back to the waitress and continued on, “We’re okay, thank you.” The waitress nodded and left them to eat. Heather waited for a solid beat for the waitress to be out of earshot and immediately began to speak again, “I think we should go back to the cemetery. There might be something that we missed last night.”

Veronica sighed as she poked at her eggs with a slice of toast. “What if the police are there, Heather?” She asked before pulling the toast back to her mouth to take a bite.

“We can play it off – you were my best friend when I was alive and it’s coming up on a year. Paying respects, Ronnie.” Heather quickly explained. She bit her lip and briefly looked up in thought before mumbling, “In about a week it’ll have been a year. I mean wasn’t it – October 29th? 28th?”

“It was the 29th,” Veronica quickly replied, as if she didn’t have the exact date etched into her memory. She pressed her tongue to the roof her mouth and then caught her teeth between her lips – she hated that Heather was right. She was always right. “Ugh, fine,” Veronica groaned, admitting defeat, “We can go there after we finish up here, okay?”

They only exchanged small talk for the remainder of their time there – small passing jokes – nothing groundbreaking or really furthering whatever purgatory was the state of their relationship. Eventually, Heather slipped off to the bathroom just wanting to freshen up a little bit before they took their trek any further. She stuck her hands under the cold water of the faucet and brought it up to her borrowed face, attempting to wipe away some of the grime from her borrowed body. She wasn’t exactly filthy, but the traveling combined with yesterday’s grave digging expedition didn’t exactly lend itself to being entirely dirt free. She wiped her eyes and found an unfamiliar woman standing all too close behind her.

Heather whirled around, leaning herself against the sink, attempting to create a modicum of distance between herself and the strange woman staring at her and yelped, “Who the hell are you?”

“You shouldn’t be here,” The woman growled out. There was nothing remarkable about her – thick curly black hair, pale skin, dark brown eyes – she was pretty average. She was maybe in her mid to late thirties – maybe early forties if Heather really used her imagination, but that was about it. Normal. That’s what scared Heather the most about her.

“Last time I checked this is the women’s restroom,” Heather argued, attempting to lighten the situation. This was just some crazy lady from town. Nothing more.

“You took something that wasn’t yours,” The woman accused jabbing a cold finger into Heather’s chest. “You’re not even supposed to be _alive._”

“Uh, thanks, but my friend is waiting for me – I need to go –“ Heather began as she started to squirm away from the crazy woman talking to her. There was no way she knew she was possessing Kennedy. That would be absurd – only she and Veronica knew. Heather grimaced, well Kennedy was probably at least dimly aware of being possessed, right?

The woman gripped at Heather’s wrist, holding it much too tight and hissed, “Your beloved belongs to another, she won’t be able to save you when it comes to it, Heather Chandler.”

Heather went pale and wrenched her wrist free from the woman and shook her head beginning to babble, “You have the wrong person, I’m not Heather Chandler.” Heather was horrified and she just backed out of the bathroom, “I hope you find the right girl,” She quickly uttered as she ran the rest of the way back to the booth where Veronica was beginning to stand.

“Whoa, where’s the f-“ Veronica began to joke until she caught a clearer view of Heather’s face. “Wait, hey, are you okay?” Veronica quickly asked, her hands reaching out to put an arm over Heather’s shoulder.

Heather flinched away for a moment as she chewed on her lip. “We need to go,” The smaller girl urged, desperate to leave the restaurant before that psycho in the bathroom came out. “Right now,” Heather spoke again, trying to give Veronica at least _some _sense of agency.

“Uh, yeah sure – I already paid so we’re good to – do you want me to drive?” She asked as she picked up the keys from the table and began to pull the other girl away from the restaurant.

Heather nodded, looking attempting to come down from the shell shocking experience she had just been through, “We just need to hurry.” Veronica gave a mute nod, lacing her hand with Heather’s as she pushed her way out the door and to the car where she quickly unlocked it and put it into drive, peeling out of the parking lot.

Once they were on the road, Veronica stole a quick glance over to Heather, anxiously wetting her own lips. “What was that all about?” She asked after a moment.

“Someone else knows that I’m Heather Chandler.”


	9. Jennifer's Body

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hunt for Heather's body comes to a climax.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is a little shorter than the others but I promise the shock value is worth it :^)   
I've already started on chapter 10 so that should be up in a coupla days!
> 
> and per usual here's the links  
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4c02Q3Jf4qd0fR3QlbDqBo?si=jzDJC8stQJyEoU4gPoAKvg  
twitter: @laurahoIIis  
tumblr: harlcyquinzcl.tumblr.com

“Your beloved belongs to someone else?” Veronica spoke her eyebrows furrowed down extremely far. Heather had just recapped the entire bathroom incident she had with the weirdo lady and Veronica was desperately attempting to process what the hell any of it meant. The plot was thickening almost too much for Veronica to cope with over such a short period of time – going from ghost dead best friend to weird witch ladies threatening your dead best friend while she was possessing someone. Yeah, _so _easy to follow. Not.

“And then she said my name – like _my _name,” Heather explained as they pulled into the cemetery they had been in just a night prior.

“Is that, not to be vain, but is that supposed to be me?” Veronica asked putting the car into park and turning her body to face Heather. She was so confused – the only other person she really had any ‘belonging’ to was Heather Kennedy, and well, she was kind of MIA due to Heather Chandler going all Exorcist on her. It wasn’t like she was anyone’s property anyway. She clicked her tongue and shook her head; this entire thing was absolutely ass-backward.

Heather offered a shrug with one shoulder as she unbuckled the seatbelt. “I’d guess so; there isn’t exactly a whole laundry list of people I’m in love with, Veronica.” Heather’s voice was light and teasing, and one her eyebrows quirked up for the briefest of moments.

Veronica gave a small laugh in response and undid her own seatbelt and ran a hand through her hair, “Okay, yeah, you, uh, kind of got me there.” Veronica sighed and looked at toward the cemetery, none-too-thrilled to have to venture back out there – hoping that there weren’t any police officers around to accuse them of grave robbing. She ran her tongue over her lips and continued, “So, I guess the big question is: who the hell thinks I’m _theirs._”

Heather began to exit the car and, feeling emboldened by Veronica’s vague almost-admission of attraction, spoke, “We’ll they’re going to have to fight me for you.” The door quickly shut behind the ghost, which earned an eye roll from Veronica as she followed suit out of the car.

“Heather, wait up,” Veronica chastised as she moved into a soft jog to catch up with the former-specter. “Do you have _any _desire to be subtle?”

Heather scoffed but slowed her pace to give Veronica the chance to catch up. “We didn’t take my body - so someone else had to and don’t you want to get to any evidence that could be left behind before the meatheads at Sherwood PD get here?” Heather spoke, her voice almost too even of a tone. She was on a mission, and well, she was pissed, to put it plainly. She wanted her own goddamn body back and the unspoken promise that she and Veronica could have a fighting chance. Plus, having her life back would be nothing short of amazing; her afterlife had been so boring up until two days ago so _anything _was a welcome change.

“Yeah, I do, but I don’t think us running in there is exactly the most apropos way go about it, Heather,” Veronica replied as she moved into step with the other girl.

Heather released a disgruntled sigh and turned her head to face Veronica as they began to walk into the cemetery. “What do you suggest, Sawyer?” She asked, crossing her arms.

“Well, uh –“

“Exactly, so what I think we should do is build up some theatrics,” Heather began, a devilish smile forming on her lips, “It’ll be a year since I ‘killed myself’ in six days; you’re home on fall break from school and you wanted to pay respects to your dead BFF, and if that doesn’t get them fooled pull out the waterworks as distraction and I’ll look for any clues.”

“You’re…kind of evil, you know that?” Veronica mumbled, a small laugh escaping from the back of her throat. Heather returned the laugh and then quickly elbowed Veronica in the side. Veronica let out a hiss, “Ow, what the fuck was that for-“

Heather quickly cut her off in a hushed whisper, “Police.”

Veronica momentarily widened her eyes as they approached Heather’s grave. “Ah, shit,” She mumbled and then began to get into her assigned role of ‘grieving best friend’ and cast her gaze to the ground. Heather followed her lead as they walked closer to a set of police officers, but kept her eyes forward and put a hand on Veronica’s back, pulling her closer, hoping that maybe she was selling their act for the better.

“Excuse me, ladies, we’re going to have to ask you to stop there,” The taller of the two officers spoke, holding a hand out and stepping in front of gaping hole in front of Heather’s headstone. The other was crouched down by the hole, a confused look on his face, and a notepad gripped in his hand.

Veronica feigned shock lifting her eyes from the ground and spoke, “Why, what’s happening?” Her lower lip trembled for a mere moment as the officer took her appearance in. To their benefit, both Heather and Veronica looked absolutely haggard.

The man sighed and pulled his hat off and spoke delicately, “You knew Heather Chandler?”

Veronica gave a solemn nod and Heather rubbed at her back as if to soothe her. “Sorry, it’s just coming up on the anniversary so she’s just a little sensitive,” Heather spoke, keeping her voice low.

“Well, there’s been an incident with someone – probably just some stupid kids – messing we the grave, so we’re just asking that all civilians keep a distance,” The officer explained as she shot a look of pity toward the two girls.

Then, summoning all the acting prowess she contained, Veronica burst into tears and began to blubber, “I just wanted to visit – I have to go back to school today and – and –“ She cut herself off by fully dissolving into tears, her body shaking with a sob. Heather allowed Veronica to crumble to the ground and backed off as the officer made his way over, scrambling to say something about how she could say her respects.

Heather slid off to the side where the officer had been standing a moment prior and began to scan over the grass for a sign of _something _useful they could take so they could maybe beat the cops to her body. She could hear another rather theatric wail that Veronica had let out and she stifled a snicker that was threatening to burst out of her lips. As she looked down she spotted a small white paper tucked into some of the loose dirt on top of the coffin. Heather sucked in a deep breath and focused on the small rectangle and flicked her wrist, attempting to summon it out of the pit in the ground.

The card came careening out of the dirt and into Heather’s hand. This caught the attention of the officer who had been looking into the pit. He lifted his eyes to look at Heather standing next to the grave holding the card in her hands. She quickly took a step back and apologized, feigning ignorance, “Sorry, do I need to step back officer?”

“Dale, can you get your ass back over here – that kid’ll be okay, we can’t have people walking up like this,” The shorter man grumbled at his colleague who was still attempting to soothe Veronica.

Veronica glanced up from her crocodile tears and shot a glance toward Heather who gave a short nod. Veronica wiped her eyes and began to stand while explaining herself to the officer, “I’m sorry – I – I’ll be okay – I’ll leave, I’m sorry.”

Heather quickly made her way back to Veronica’s side and helped her to her feet and spoke almost soothingly, “We can come back maybe when things are cleaned up, it’ll be okay.” The two officers watched uselessly as Heather pretended to console the teary Veronica.

Veronica swallowed hard and nodded as they began to walk back to the car. Once they cleared the officer’s line of vision and made their way into the car, Veronica completely dropped the act and wiped at her eyes in earnest trying to remove the tears from her face. “Okay, so what’d you find?” She asked, her voice almost bursting with excitement.

Heather offered a grin and held out a business card to Veronica who quickly took it and read it and the spoke almost dismissively, “Okay a rental company, cool?”

“And now flip it over, genius,” Heather said taking the card from Veronica’s hands and flipping it over for her and rose her brows and mocked, “Thank you, Heather, for finding our first clue, I appreciate it so much.”

Veronica rolled her eyes and read the card – it had an address written in pen on it. She straightened up and a grin popped up on her lips and she repeated, “Thank you, Heather, for finding our first clue, I appreciate it _so _much.”

“Smartass,” Heather said shaking her head good-naturedly. “So, come on - let’s go!”

Veronica allowed herself to gaze almost adoringly at Heather for a moment before pulling off; maybe this would end up working out for them.

The car rattled to a halt outside of a warehouse on the edge of the Sherwood city lines. Veronica and Heather stood outside the car, resting on the hood of it, staring at the warehouse ahead of them.

Veronica knocked Heather’s shoulder with her own, and spoke, “Totally looks like a horror movie, right?”

Heather cast a glance over to Veronica and released a short laugh, “At least we’re prepared for a slasher, come on, let’s go check it out.” She hopped off the hood of the car and began to walk toward the building. Veronica breathed out a heavy sigh and for what felt like the millionth time that day, followed after Heather.

They circled the building for a moment until Veronica called out, “Heather, over here!” Heather quickly made her way over to see Veronica attempting to force a rather rusted door open.

“Stand back”

“What?” Veronica asked and before she could even fully get out of the way the door swung inward and off its hinges. Veronica turned around to see a smug Heather, her arms positioned toward where the door had been standing moments ago. Veronica breathed out a sigh of relief that it was merely Heather and immediately chastised the other girl, “You scared the shit out of me.”

Heather let the borrowed arms fall to the side and let out a grunt, “You’re welcome, Veronica.” She then grabbed the other girl by the arm and yanked her into the building.

The warehouse was remarkably empty; a few wooden crates off to one corner, some trash littered across the ground, a metal table parallel with one of the walls, and a door on the far end of the room. The walls were barren save the few vestiges of light that streamed through the small windows at the very top of the walls; on the ceilings to match were old metal lamps, a low wattage glowing from the bulbs with an occasional flicker. Veronica let out a whistle before speaking, “This place is a dump.”

“Oh, you just noticed?” Heather asked as she bent down to look at some of the scraps of garbage on the ground. Candy bar wrapper, old beer can, a couple of pennies, and old receipts; this all made Heather let out a grunt, slightly defeated by the lack of results they were having.

“Everything good, Beetlejuice?” Veronica asked, turning her head toward Heather. Veronica who had been attempting to pry the lid off of one of the crates but abandoned it to make her way over to Heather. “There’s another door we can check that out, it’ll be okay – we’ll figure something out.” Veronica assuaged as she finished her approach.

Heather sighed and offered a shrug, attempting to breeze past Veronica to the door, “Fine.”

Veronica quickly reached for Heather’s shoulder to turn her around while speaking, “Whoa, hey, no, don’t just ‘fine’ me, Heather,” Once Heather had fully turned around she put both of her hands on Heather’s shoulders and carried on, “We’re going to find you, even if it kills me.”

Heather blew out a sigh and she swallowed hard and gave a small nod. It was starting to get to her that they weren’t having any success, but she trusted Veronica. Hell, Veronica felt like she was the only person that she could trust at all. So, she dared to dream for a moment a pulled Veronica closer and into a crushing hug for a mere moment before pulling away and speaking, “Let’s do this then.”

Veronica surprised from the sudden hug gave a simple nod and lead the charge toward the door. She opened the door to a dimly lit – well it looked like an apartment that someone had been squatting in; a makeshift bed, another low wattage bulb as the sole lighting for the room, a table, and a couple of chairs sat next to the table. Another door sat in the back of the room, which did _not _assuage Veronica’s fears. Heather and Veronica shared a look as they cautiously stepped into the room. This was definitely eerie.

Heather quickly held a finger to her lips, indicating for them to be as quiet as possible as they looked around the room. Veronica nodded an affirmative, her tongue running over her lips, anxiety beginning to bubble in her stomach. This was going to be fine. Maybe they would just find Heather and they’d get to leave. No big. The pair began to separate, as they became intent on digging through the entire room before giving up for the day at least. Heather made her way over to the bed where she began to pull the sheets off and Veronica scanned the room, looking for any scraps of paper or just _anything _that could help them find Heather’s body.

Then, the power went out.

Veronica froze as her heart flew up into her throat like a vice. She lost Heather in the sudden darkness of the room. Okay, okay, she just had to play this cool. She put her hands out in front of her and found them meeting one of the chairs next to the table. She clumsily slid them along the chair and onto the table, which made a light thud. Veronica cringed at the sound and immediately clenched up again. She heaved in a breath and spoke in a hushed whisper, “Heather?”

The lack of response only made Veronica’s heart race faster. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Okay, so she was totally trapped in there with a body snatcher and there was nothing she could do about it. This was what she got for joking about the warehouse looking like it was straight out of a horror movie. In fairness, nothing about the entire situation she was trapped in was anything but a horror movie; a dead best friend and missing body weren’t exactly your everyday Ivy League problems.

The sound of a clamor from the other side of the room made Veronica shrink back for a moment before she ran at the sound; if Heather was in trouble she was going to have to save her. It was what Veronica felt like she owed her, so she found herself running face-first into, well someone in the darkness. She struggled for a moment when a familiar hand sought her own and began to drag her through what she assumed was the door she had seen at the other side of the room. The darkness was still ever pervading in whatever space they were in – small streaks of light attempting to seep into the room from the windows up high, but nothing enough to make out what was behind them or in front of them.

Veronica ran blindly, her hand gripping tighter to the one she had captured in her own, the sound of thundering footsteps behind fueling her to move her legs all the faster. Eventually, they burst out of the warehouse and into the late afternoon sun, momentarily blinding Veronica. She winced away from the sun, removing her hand from the person she had been running with, shielding her eyes momentarily. That’s when it hit Veronica – she had to check to see if Heather was okay.

She turned to face what she had assumed was Heather and found herself face-to-face with, well, Heather. Heather Chandler as she had known her; wild curly red hair, piercing blue eyes, freckles spattered across her cheeks. It felt like Veronica had been socked in the gut as all the air rapidly left her body upon seeing _her _Heather Chandler. She was in the same stupid white dress they had buried her in, the blue drain cleaner nowhere to be found on her face. “Heather?” Veronica’s voice came out in a crackle, her bottom lip beginning to quiver.

Heather glanced down at herself, turning her hands over, a shocked expression taking over her face. “What,” Heather spoke as she took a step backward and she turned around in a circle as if she was trying to get a better glance at herself. Her hands snaked up to her head, feeling the hair on her head. She released a laugh, her voice almost thick with disbelief, “Oh my god.”

Then, she found herself being pulled into a crushing hug by Veronica, who was beginning to shake with a sob. Heather quickly wrapped her arms around the now shorter girl. Veronica pulled back for a moment, looking Heather in the eye and then kissed her almost too harshly. Heather, however, couldn’t help but smile into the kiss; it was everything she had wanted after all. They melted together for what felt like a moment all too long when Veronica pulled back with urgency, “Wait we need to find, Heather. Heather Kennedy – I – you’re you but – I - I can’t just leave her here, I mean fuck you’ve been her for like the past four days and – I – that’s not right, Heather.”

A frown pulled across Heather Chandler’s face but she nodded solemnly and turned back toward the door they had just burst from; except this time, the power was back on. Veronica followed Heather in, capturing her hand back in her own, refusing to lose track of her this time. The now lit room was just a simple back hallway they had run through – however, a large black bag sat on the ground – probably where Heather’s former corpse had been kept. They carefully made their way back to the door that had been left wide open in the wake of their escape and poked their heads into the room. The furniture was the way it had been when Veronica and Heather had walked in the first time – perhaps a little askew from the bed being mussed with and Veronica running into the table and chairs, but still the same.

“Heather?” Veronica called out as she began to urgently look through the room and then out into the room with the wooden crates. Empty. Shit.

“I don’t think she’s here, Veronica” Heather spoke softly, giving Veronica’s hand a gentle squeeze.

Veronica began to get frantic, her breathing again growing shallow and ragged, “Well – I – we need to find her, I just can’t leave her behind and I-“

“Veronica, maybe they drove somewhere else, but I don’t think she’s here,” Heather repeated almost too calmly, “Let’s just go look in the woods or we could drive around on the back roads. If we hurry maybe we can catch them.”

Veronica nodded rapidly, swallowing hard. There was something off about all of this but she couldn’t quite figure it all out, but she knew Heather was right, they had to hurry or else Kennedy was as good as gone. “There was another car – they were probably on foot so – so let’s go in the woods, we’ll catch up eventually, right?” She spoke, running her free hand through her hair.

Veronica let go of Heather’s hand as they stepped out of the doorway they had barged into and released another heavy sigh but began to walk through the woods behind the building, this was their lead and they had to follow it. The leaves and twigs crunching under her feet weren’t exactly a comfort to her as they sank deeper into the forest; she knew every snap and crunch would give their position away in the otherwise silent outdoors.

She paused for a moment and didn’t hear another set of leaves crunching behind her. She turned around in circles rapidly – Heather Chandler was now nowhere in sight. Today was going to swimmingly for Veronica and it was about to get even better for her; Veronica didn’t see it coming. What she had thought was Heather Chandler had slunk up behind her, being careful to not snap a twig under her feet, and in her hands was a tree branch, that she then swung and connected to the side of Veronica’s head.

And Veronica fell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who do you guys think it is?? :))))


End file.
